A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR

STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,

Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2015

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS

IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR:

HUE, 2015

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BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

-NGHIÊN CỨU SỬ DỤNG CÁC TÌNH HUỐNG

HÀI KỊCH GIẢNG DẠY MÔN NÓI

CHO SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC VINH

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC

BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH

MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC:

HUE, 2015

ii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This work has not previously been submitted for a degree

or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledgeand belief, the thesis contains no material previouslypublished or written by another person except where duereference is made in the thesis itself

Date: 3/ 8 / 2015Signature

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This study was set out to describe the implementation of using sitcom situation

in speaking class and explore how it influences on student’s motivation, languageproficiency

The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches in methodology

A questionnaire was sent to 35 students who were at different level ofEnglish Interview data was also collected with 6 students; in addition, observationwas conducted in some classes

Results highlight the complexity of How does using sitcoms make an impact

on student’s motivation? And what are the benefits of using sitcoms in oral skills? The researcher shows that sitcoms indeed are great and useful tool for Englishlearners and for teachers of English as well Moreover, persuasive figures in thisstudy demonstrated the great improvement of student’s English listening andspeaking proficiency after learning with sitcoms Both teacher and students foundthat sitcoms brought them completely new English learning experiences and theyseem satisfied with the sitcoms used classes

Based on the findings of the study, the research gave some discussions,conclusions and some suggestions for the future research

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I have been fortunate to receive invaluable help from many people during myassignment First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to DR , my teacher,for his immense encouragement, whole hearted and detailed guidance, withoutwhich the assignment could not have been completed

My sincere gratitude goes to my teachers of the foreign language, VinhUniversity for their practical knowledge through useful guidance which helps me alot in completing this study Without their superior knowledge and experience, thestudy would like in quality of outcomes, and thus their support has been essential

I want to particularly express my deepest appreciation to Mr Alex Porter forhis valuable suggestions and useful help

I would like to show my special thanks to my students who help me a lot ingiving their invaluable comments and suggestions while the work of thisassignment was in progress

Last but not least, I also owe my indebtedness to my family and colleaguesfor their kind co-operation and encouragement which help us in completion of thisstudy

Vinh, July 2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUB COVER PAGE

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

ABSTRACT

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLE

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.Background of the study 1

1.2.Purpose and questions of the study 3

1.3.Definition of terms 3

1.4.Significance of the study 4

1.5.Summary 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Authenticity material in language teaching and motivation 5

2.1.1 Authenticity/ authentically material 5

2.2 Motivation 6

2.2.1 Gardner's motivation theory 6

2.2.2 The Dornyei- Otto process –oriented model of L2 motivation 7

2.3 Sitcoms and language teachings 9

2.3.1 Sitcoms and motivation 9

2.3.2 Sitcoms and humor in the language classroom 10

2.3.3 Sitcoms and culture 11

2.3.4 Sitcoms and pragmatics 13

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Methodology 15

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3.2 Theoretical Framework of the research 15

3.3 Selection of Participants 16

3.4 Material 17

3.5 Data Collection Methods 18

3.5.1 Basic Speaking initial questionnaires: 18

3.5.2 Recording students before and after class 18

3.5.3 Classroom observation 18

3.5.4 Interviews 19

3.5.5 After course questionnaires 19

3.5.6 Data analysis 19

3.6 Summary 19

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS 20

4.1 Learner Motivation 23

4.1.1 Active classroom interactions 23

4.1.1.1 Group work 23

4.1.1.2 Teacher’s questioning 25

4.1.2 New activities in class and evaluation 27

4.1.2.1 Cultural Background 27

4.1.2.2 Mediated watching 29

4.1.2.3 Dubbing 30

4.1.2.4 Role play 31

4.1.2.5 Muted sitcom 32

4.1.3 Entertaining Teaching Material 33

4.1.4 Teacher’s characteristics 35

4.1.4.1 Teacher’s teaching style 36

4.1.4.2 Teacher’s feed back 36

4.2 Improvement in English listening and speaking proficiency 37

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 46

5.1 Motivation enhancement 46

5.2 Teacher’s mediation 47

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5.3 Language comprehension 47

5.4 Suggestion for future research 49

REFERENCES 50

APPENDIX A 54

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

S W : Stressed words

B S I C : Stands for Before stress instruction class

A S I C : After stress instruction class

o : A symbol for unstressed word

0 : A symbol for stressed word LIST OF TABLE

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Table 3-1 Demographic information of Teacher Participant 16

Table 3-2 Demographic information of student Participants 16

Table 4-1 Advantages and Disadvantages of the sitcom- based Instruction compared to textbooks 35

Table 4-2 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 38

Table 4-3 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 39

Table 4-4 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 39

Table 4-5 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 39

Table 4-6 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 39

Table 4-7 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 40

Table 4-8 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 40

Table 4-9 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 40

Table 4-10 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 40

Table 4-11 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 41

Table 4-12 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 41

Table 4-13 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 41

Table 4-14 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 41

Table 4-15 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 42

Table 4-16 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 42

Table 4-17 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 42

Table 4-18 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 42

Table 4-19 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 43

Table 4-20 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 43

Table 4-21 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 43

Table 4-22 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 43

Table 4-23 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 44

Table 4-24 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 44

Table 4-25 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 44

Table 4-26 The progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 44

Table 4-27 The results of t he progress of analyzing and comparing student’s stress sentences 45

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LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS

FIGURE 2.1 Gardner and Smythe’s Model of Motivation (1975) 7

FIGURE 2.2 A Process Model of L2 Learning Motivation 8

FIGURE 2.3 Infinite circle of humor, culture and language 11

Chart 4-1 Students’ attitude toward the speaking English skill 20

Chart 4-2: The students’ triple “L” 21

Chart 4-3 Factors that students can learn from movies 22

Chart 4-4 Student’s favorite activities in sitcoms used class 32

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1.Background of the study

All of English major students at Vinh University had to spend at least 7 or 8years studying English since elementary before enrolling the professional long termEnglish course, but most of them frequently failed to use English to communicate.The reasons, which were pointed out, were the lack of exposure of students to anEnglish environment, they have few chances to listen to and speak in English, andthe speaking lessons were not motivated enough

According to the input hypothesis and studies in second language acquisition,

a large amount of exposure to a language speaking and listening environment is thekey to a success in language learning (Hammond, 1898; Nicola, 1989; Nikolov &Krashen, 1997; swaffer & woodruff, 1982; wolfe & Jones, 1982; Winitz, 1996,cited in Krashen, 1997)

Over the past decade, there have been numerous workshops, journal papers onthe use of the authentic materials in language classroom in order to increaselearner’s motivation and effective learning In her TESL journal, Christine Canning

Wilson mentioned that “Video is at best defined as the selection and sequence of

messages in an audio-visual context Considerable confidence is placed in the value

of audio-visual aids to enhance the learning of foreign languages” Arthur( 1999)

claims that : “ video can give students realistic models to imitate for role-play , can

increase awareness of other cultures by teaching appropriateness and suitability, can strengthen audio/visual linguistic perceptions simultaneously, can widen the classroom repertoire and range of activities, can help utilize the latest technology

to facilitate language learning, can teach direct observation of paralinguistic features found in association with the target language, can be used to help when training students in ESP related scenarios and language, can offer a visual reinforcement of the target language and can lower anxiety when practicing the skill of listening” At the workshop “ Short and sweet: using short films to promote

creativity and communication” , Kieran explores how short films can be used in the

classroom, and how we use it to promote creativity , and both oral and writtencommunication by doing communicative activities based around a variety of shortfilms.

Moreover, in term of learner motivation with videos, a number of studies and

journals have shown that “video appear to be more interesting to students so that

they are likely to become actively involved in the lesson” (Chiang, 1996, 1997; Lin

& Fox, 199a; Lin, 2002a; Lo, 2004)

Stephen Ryan in his journal on “using films to develop learner motivation”

says that “Students will often express an interest in using movies as a medium for

language learning.”

Furthermore, psychologists say that a film is great when it reflects a person’sown values In another word, great films help us discover our personal values, whenyou have a strong feeling while watching movies, you may see personal valueinside of you that movie is reflecting Movies can teach you a lot about you self

Sineta (1993) claims that “Films can be consciousness-raising tools; their stories

are personal mentors that lessen fear or illuminate the love, virtue, and wholeness already present in our lives”.

It can be seen that, students will have a great motivation if they have chance

to study with films in class, and the teachers will have a very new and excitingteaching experience as well comparing to using traditional textbooks

It goes without saying that Film is one of the greatest authentic tools of

teaching English in class Freda Mishan claims that “any teacher who has used a film

with learners will have felt the thrill of excitement in the class, the learners’ anticipation of entertainment and enjoyment at the sight of the VCR Of all the cultural products discussed here, film is the one that is designed to appeal most directly and fully to our emotions.” In the context of ESL of ESL/EFL teaching,

abundant studies have recognized the importance of using videos to enhance learner’slistening comprehension and to train student’s oral skills (Baltova, 1994; Chung &

Chiao, 1999; Lin, 2000a, 2002a; Lo, 2004; Markham, Peter, & McCarthy, 2001;Secules, Herron, & Tomasello, 1992; Synder, 1988, cited in Hui-Ying Bai, 2008) Explore sitcoms, which are a powerful source of authentic language with areference to the cultural back ground of characters, in teaching and improving student’sEnglish listening and speaking proficiency would be the main aim of this study

1.2.Purpose and questions of the study

This study aimed to describe the implementation of using sitcom situation inspeaking class and explore how it influences on student’s motivation, languageproficiency

The following research questions were guided by the mentioned purposes

1 How does using sitcoms make an impact on student’s motivation?

2 What are the benefits of using sitcoms in oral skills?

How do sitcoms increase student’s motivation?

How do they increase student’s oral skill?

How do they have to develop oral skill?

(Crookes & Schmidt, 1991)

3 Authentic materials

Materials designed for native speakers for real purposes rather than language

“invented” by linguistics and textbook writers (Baddock, 1996)

4 The input hypothesis

Which applies only to language acquisition and not to language learning, posits theprocess that allows second language learners to move through the predictablesequence of the acquisition of grammatical structures predicted by the natural orderhypothesis According to the input hypothesis, second language learners require

comprehensible input, represented by i+1, to move from the current level of acquisition, represented by i, to the next level of acquisition Comprehensible input

is input that contains a structure that is “a little beyond” the current understanding—with understanding defined as understanding of meaning rather than understanding

of form—of the language learner (Krashen, 1982)

5 The affective filter hypothesis

This hypothesis states that “language learning must take place in an environment

where learners are ‘off the defensive’ and the affective filter (anxiety) is low in order for the input to be noticed and gain access to the learners’ thinking”.

(Krashen, 1982)

1.4.Significance of the study

Creating an exciting environment , having all students get involved in theactivities and helping students have same amount of speaking time in class is noteasy for any English teachers And, the use of authentic materials in an EFLclassroom has been discussed in recent years by many teachers who are teachingforeign languages Some persuasive voices insisting that English presented inclassroom should be authentic, full of cultural values and should be in funny ways.Thanks to this study, exploring sitcoms in teaching speaking gave students greatexperiences and improvements, teachers would have more options in speaking class

1.5.Summary

This study aimed to describe the implementation of using sitcom situation inspeaking class and explore how it influences on student’s motivation, languageproficiency The researcher aimed to emphasize the crucial and important role ofusing video material in the areas of student’s motivation, speaking and listeningskills Moreover, both students and teachers would gain an in-depth understanding

of the culture of some native English speaking countries in funny ways The nextchapter will present literature review of the use of videos in language teaching.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Authenticity material in language teaching and motivation

2.1.1 Authenticity/ authentically material

According to Freda Mishan “it is perhaps incumbents to deal at the outset

with the issue of adopting terms like authentic and authenticity, so weighted by the value judgments implicit in their gloss as real, genuine, bonda fida, pure Such value judgments have meant that authentic materials and authenticity are naturally appealing proposition of language practitioners and learners alike” Authentic

material, which provides a real world communication and real contexts in daily life,

is very suitable for language classrooms Thanks to TV and Internet, authenticmaterial can be found easier than before News, documentaries, talk show, realityshow, movies, drama series, etc., are such valuable authentic material.Furthermore, Omaggio – Hadley (1986) insisted that one of the importantprinciples of communicative language teaching is that authentic language should beused in instruction whenever possible

A comparative study of authentic video material and traditional curriculumfor teaching listening in U.S.A was conducted by Secules, Herron, and Tomasello(1992) revealed that the video group demonstrated considerably greater listeningcomprehension than the group without videos in results

As students learn to enjoy watching video materials, they will eventuallyseek out more of their own time watching for their own pleasure, and their Englishwill improve as a by-product of their enjoyment (Hwang, 2005; Katchen, 1996;Krashen, 1997, cited in Hui – ying, Bai)

Using authentic materials is one of the mainstays of an imaginative andmotivating higher level course, and it benefits both students and teachers

Martinez (2000) said that “by using authentic materials in the classroom, even

when it is not an authentic situation, it still provides the learners with many significant advantages” He also summarized several benefits of using authentic

materials The first one is that by using authentic material, students are exposed toreal discourse Secondly, authentic materials keep students informed about what ishappening in the world Thirdly, as language change is reflected in the materials sothat students and teachers can keep abreast of such changes Fourthly, reading textsare ideal to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning Fifthly, different authenticmaterials such as books, articles, newspapers, and so on contain a wide variety of texttypes, and language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials Lastly,authentic materials can encourage reading for pleasure because they are likely tocontain topics of interest to learners, especially if students are given the chance tohave a say about the topics of kinds of authentic materials to be used in class

2.2 Motivation

Peacock said that “for this study ‘motivation’ is defined… [as] interest in andenthusiasm for the materials used in class; persistence with the learning task, asindicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration; and levels ofconcentration and enjoyment”

Needless to say, the motivation factor is one of the key justifications for theuse of authentic texts for language learning

2.2.1 Gardner's motivation theory

Traditionally, motivation is distinguished as stemming from as desire either

to integrate with the target language community (integrative motivation) or toachieve a practical goal ( instrumental motivation) by Gardner and Lambert

FIGURE 2.1 Gardner and Smythe’s Model of Motivation (1975)

This model were proposed by Gardner and Smythe (1975), and the extension

of theoretical interpretations provided by Lambert (1963, 1967, 1974) and Carroll(1962) This model was based on three elements: effort spent, motivation toachieve, enjoying the task

2.2.2 The Dornyei- Otto process –oriented model of L2 motivation

Developed by Dorney and Otto ( 1998) , the language learning motivation isconsidered as “ a dynamic factor that displays continuous fluctuation,” in theprocess model of L2 motivation, changing over time, and not as a static attribute inother exitsting models of L2 motivation ( Donyei, 2005, p.83)

(Adapted from Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning:

Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications )

FIGURE 2.2 A Process Model of L2 Learning Motivation

There are 3 stages in a process model of L2 Learning Motivation, preactionalstage, actional stage and postactional stage They are viewed in two dimensions:Actions sequence and Motivational Influences The action sequence was elaborated

by Dornyei and Otto (1998) as follows

1 Preactional stage

First, motivation needs to be generated – the motivational dimension related

to this initial phase can be referred to as choice motivation, because the generatedmotivation leads to the selection of the goal or task that the individual will pursue

2 Actional stage

Second, the generated motivation needs to be actively maintained andprotected while the particular action lasts This motivational dimension has beenreferred to as executive motivation, and it is particularly relevant to sustained

activities such as studying an L2, and especially to learning in classroom settings,where students are exposed to a great number of distracting influences, such as off-task thoughts, irrelevant distractions from others, anxiety about the tasks, orphysical conditions that make it difficult to complete the task.

(Dornyei & Otto, 1998, p.84)

2.3 Sitcoms and language teachings.

2.3.1 Sitcoms and motivation

Motivation is one of the most important factors in determining successfulsecond-language acquisition Films and TV shows are an integral part of students’lives so it makes perfect sense to bring them into the language classroom Film, as amotivator, also makes the language learning process more entertaining andenjoyable

Since watching sitcoms in free time is more and more popular amongteenagers and adults, in English class, sitcoms are great tool for English teachers IfStudents often feel sleepy or bored dealing with traditional textbooks, sitcoms willgive both students and teachers new exciting experiences Markéta Hlozková claimsthat “Another motivational factor in learning English via sitcoms is the challengeand the sense of achievement connected with exposure to the authentic language.Furthermore, sitcoms are powerful means for supporting students in autonomousand lifelong learning” Students are exposed to authentic English in real medialintended to native speakers in real situations in daily life In order to understandwhat is happening on the screen and what makes people laugh out loud, and enjoysitcoms as native speakers , students have to know more information about the

content by getting more knowledge about vocabulary, grammar structures, andculture as well as get involved in activities based on sitcoms by teachers in class

According to Stempleski and Tomalin “ Incorporating communicative

activities based on the content of the video can encourage a more interactive classroom, one in which the students are pushed to communicate what they have seen and heard in order to complete the task at hand Video provides foreign language learners insight into the culture of the target language, and allows for the opportunity to question any non- verbal aspects of communication that they may not be familiar with Video can lead to such cross-cultural comparisons to be made.”

By using sitcoms in class, students will be enthusiastic about a target culture

or to achieve native speakers ‘understanding of English Learner can learn English

in the most comfortable and enjoyable way

2.3.2 Sitcoms and humor in the language classroom.

Humor and laughter play important parts in our life and in the Englishclasses either By exploiting sitcoms, humor will be a useful tool to help learnersovercome the psychology barrier in classes so they can freely and comfortably getinvolved in activities given by teachers, because a positive environment inclassroom may be more effective and beneficial than a strict and serious one.Thanks to its humorous nature, active watching sitcoms in the English lessons mayenhance and intensify student’s learning (Markéta Hlozková, 2013)

Moreover, when college students are asked to identify what makes a goodinstructor, among the first characteristics noted is a sense of humor Students oftenremember their favorite instructors as being those who created a fun environmentand made them laugh Fun is one of the five primary needs of humans alongsidesurvival, belonging, power, and freedom (Pollak and Freda, 1997) A survey of 923college, high school, and junior high school students asked whether they preferredinstructors who used humor in the classroom Results have shown that 84% of these

students truly enjoyed instructors who used a regular to frequent amount of humor(check, 1997).

The sitcom is a powerful means for teaching and learning English throughhumor, in order to understand the sitcom, students have to learn about culture of thetarget language and get more understanding about the humor of the culture.However, not everything which is funny in sitcoms is appropriate and suitable forstudents Some of them can cause misunderstanding or offensive, rude Forexample, some joke or funny scenes about sex, poor people, the ugly, belief,religion may hurt students’ feeling ; unintentionally, if teachers don’t take in toaccount student’s conditions and have right choices

Humor not only brings students get closer in class but it also is regarded as a

valuable educational tool According to Markéta Hlozková “English learning and

teaching via authentic humor in sitcoms is like an inseparable infinite circle, when the language and culture are taught through humor, and vice versa”

(Adapted from sticoms as a Tool for English language Teaching)

FIGURE 2.3 Infinite circle of humor, culture and language.

2.3.3 Sitcoms and culture

It might be impossible for all English learners to travel to English speakingcountries in the world to work or study; Sitcoms like a bridge that help learnersencounter various attitudes, beliefs and ways of life of the English speaking

countries It goes without saying that sitcoms are a valuable source of a culturalreference

Ramona Tang in his article on “The Place of culture in the Foreign Languageclassroom” claims that Language is culture Language is the soul of the country andpeople who speak it

He also mentions the question “how much of the culture of a country should

be taught along with the language?” Teachers often spend a little time at the end ofthe class to introduce a piece of the culture for students, it could be a song, atraditional dance, festival; however, that will be not enough To speak a languagewell, one has to be able to think in that language But, not all learners areparticularly lucky; they get a chance to spend some time to immerse themselves inthe culture of the English speaking country By exploiting sitcoms in class, bothstudents and teachers can immerse in the culture for a certain amount of time.Studying culture motivate students to study the target language as well as renderingthe study of the second language meaningful

“Teaching English as culture means showing the students how grammar

and vocabulary express, construct and are a metaphor for the social and cultural reality of an English-speaking world (Halliday, 1978; Kramsch, 1998), and how idiomatic expressions say something about the general mindsets and beliefs of native speakers of English (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)” (cited in language, culture,

and voice in the teaching of English as a foreign language; Claire Kramsch)

Moreover, Garza claims that “learning a language in isolation of its cultural roots

prevents one from becoming socialized into its contextual use Knowledge of linguistic structure alone does not carry with it any special insight into the political, social, religious, or economic system”

An English learner can master a large amount of vocabulary, and excellent

at English grammar, that can’t guarantee himself a good communicationperformance, if he doesn’t know anything about the target culture

Learners can have a great opportunity to learn more about the culture ofEnglish speaking country in sitcoms, which means, they know more about thelanguage “The more we know about the culture of the language we are learning –the better our understanding of that language will be” ( Bilsborough, “ sitcoms as aTool for ELT” ).

The fact is not all the text book contains the supportive materials for teachingculture, to guide students to the real English speaking world, to motivate students tolearn the target language, teachers should use sitcoms as a tool in English class

2.3.4 Sitcoms and pragmatics

An English learner is great at vocabulary and grammar; he may have ameaningful conversation when interacting with native speakers The dialogue can

be understandable, enough to communicate with simple purposes, however, Englishcan be used wrong in some different and specific contexts Unfortunately, thecourse books today do not supply learners of English with real daily lifeconversations, sitcoms are one of the most effective tools help students to learnpragmatics in a context

According to Markéta Hlozková “pragmatics deals with the ways of people’s

communication and interpretation of intensions It also focuses on ways of appropriate use of the language in various situations depending on relationship between the participants, the setting and the context of the situation Pragmatics operates at the level of meaning and how other people understand those meaning in spoken conversations”.

Pragmatic competence is a crucial part in speaking; however, teachingpragmatic in speaking classes is being neglected Moreover, course books can’t helpstudents or teachers in term of pragmatic when providing artificial and directconversations without real context As a result, students can’t use the targetlanguage accurately and appropriately in different situations and contexts

Using sitcoms in class, students can obtain more knowledge about pragmaticcompetence Sitcoms provide real conversations and speech acts in certain situation

Furthermore, students can learn the non-verbal communication which plays 93% ofall daily communication The body language, postures, gestures, facial expressionand eye contact will be introduced simultaneously with the language by the face toface conversation scenes in sitcoms Thanks to it, students can learn how to producethe conversations and use non-verbal communication as native speakers.

Markéta Hlozková states that “thanks to watching sitcoms, learners of

English also realize that a casual dialogue does not insist on perfect fluent non – interruptive utterances By contrast, such conversations are full of repetition, hesitation, pauses, overlaps, false starts and back- channels”.

Sitcoms are great sources and valuable authentic material of teachingpragmatic in English class Students can approach the right authentic English in themost comfortable way

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Methodology

Based on the purpose of the research , describing the implementation of usingsitcom situation in speaking class and explore how it influences on student’smotivation language proficiency The methodology of the current study adoptedqualitative method and quantitative method John (2006) clarifies that QualitativeResearch is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people doand say Whereas, quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things,qualitative research refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics,metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things

Bawden (1990) defines qualitative data as studying the behavior ofindividuals in all the complexity of their real-life situations In contrast toquantitative data, qualitative data does not simply count things, but is a way ofrecording people's attitudes, feelings and behaviors in greater depth

And the following research questions were guided by the aforementioned purpose:

1 How does using sitcoms make an impact on student’s motivation?

2 What are the benefits of using sitcoms in oral skills?

How do sitcoms increase student’s motivation?

How do they increase student’s oral skill?

How do they have to develop oral skill?

3.2 Theoretical Framework of the research

This study took phenomenological perspective to approach the teacher’s andstudents’ perspectives toward the sitcom-based instruction qualitatively Dr JanetWaters states that “The goal of qualitative phenomenological research is to describe

a "lived experience" of a phenomenon As this is a qualitative analysis of narrative data, methods to analyze its data must be quite different from more traditional or quantitative methods of research.”

Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted in thisstudy in order to learn about the underlying framework for the using sitcom in speakingclass and how students interpreted their experience with the sitcoms in class.

The current study took place in a speaking class at Vinh university in 4 weeks.The participants included one teacher and a “basic speaking class” with 35students The total time this study was implemented was 4 weeks from May, 2015 toJune, 2015 All student participants were fresh men with at least 7 years learningEnglish but didn’t have any chance to speak English before The description of theteacher and the student participant’s demographic information is presented as follows

Table 3-1 Demographic information of Teacher Participant

Number of Teacher Participant One

Academic Degree B.C in English Pedagogy , Vinh university

Table 3-2 Demographic information of student Participants

Number of Student Participants 35

Gender Female / 31 Male / 4

Current Major Linguistics and pedagogy

Accumulated English learning experience 7-10 years

English oral proficiency level Basic

3.4 Material

Thanks to Youtube, sitcoms can be easily founded than ever before There arevarious available sitcoms on youtube such as “ The big bang theory ” was voted 8.6

out of 10 stars by the famous and reliable website IMDB , “ Friends” was voted 9.0out of 10 stars, “How I met your mother” was voted 8.6 out of 10, etc Thesepopular sitcoms present a complete story and always have a happy ending in eachepisode and these sitcoms are full of American culture materials, and modernsociety issues ready for class discussion about culture and issues

In this study, “Friends” was chosen to design and build a lesson around it This

TV series was on air from 1994 – 2004 The sitcom was about the group of friends,Rachel Green, Ross Geller, Monica Geller, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing andPhoebe Buffay, go through massive confusion and fear, past and future romances,family trouble, fights, laughs, tears and surprises, to find success and happiness inlife The length of running time for each episode is about 22 minutes, and in eachepisode there are a lot of small funny scenes, so teachers can easily pick one ofthem to design activities for students

“Friends” is full of American culture materials that can be used in class todiscuss, for example, the attitude of American towards to the LGBT community,dating In this sitcom, Ross got divorced and he found out that his wife is a lesbian,which caused a lot of pain for him Monica dated with her workmate and her storywas a hot talk for her friends

Moreover, it goes without saying that sitcom language is much more authenticand natural than that of dialogues found in textbooks In “Friends”, students willhave a great chance to get along with the daily languages used by native speakers indaily life For example, students can learn the short phrases: “wanna”, “ gotta”, “kinda” besides that, students can learn the slangs , this kind of language tend todevelop from the attempt to find fresh and vigorous, colorful, pungent or humorousexpression in “Friends” such as, “ chilling” means spending time with your friends,

“ Knocked up – a woman coping with an unplanned pregnancy, usually someonewho is either very young or unmarried, like Rachel

The sitcoms Friends, is one of the most popular American TV series.According to IMDB, the most reliable website about movies

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/awards?ref_=tt_awd), Friends won severalreputable awards For example: winning the Golden Globe 2003, Primetime EmmyAwards 2002, 2003 and Friends was a nominated in a lot of reputable awards Itgoes without saying that Friends is available on the internet and easy to downloadfreely The scripts of the sitcoms are available on the internet as well; students couldeasily find it and had chances to look at the scripts before the class began

3.5 Data Collection Methods

The data collection methods in this study included Basic Speaking initial

questionnaires, Recording students before and after class, Classroom observation, Interviews, Survey

3.5.1 Basic Speaking initial questionnaires:

The basic speaking initial questionnaires aims to check students’ attitude toward

to oral skills, how often do they have chance to speak English inside or outside class, and check their knowledge on sitcoms Teacher can know the starting point of the students and students’ method or techniques to improve their speaking

3.5.2 Recording students before and after class

By recording students, the researcher can collect data on student’s speakingability, before and after class, he can compare how students improve their speaking

To know how do students get better, the researcher will do the discourse analysis

by comparing the before class recording and the after class one, the researcher willpoint the improvement of the students in term of using stress in sentences

3.5.3 Classroom observation

The researcher observed what was happening in the classroom, and focused onthe language learning activities designed based on sitcom Friends and how studentsand teachers cooperate in class Moreover, by doing classroom observation, theinsider’s view of what was happing in class was developed Thanks to this, theresearcher found the differences between using sitcoms and traditional text books inspeaking class

3.5.4 Interviews

After class, students were interviewed to explore the student’ perspectivetowards the activities based on sitcoms in class The semi- structure interviews inthis study was categorized into group interviews with the students There were 5students in each group, so each student could individually tell the researcher whatthey learnt about the sitcoms, and how they interacted to each other when gettinginvolved in activities based on sitcoms in class.

3.5.5 After course questionnaires

By doing the after course questionnaires, the researcher could know moreabout individual viewpoint and detailed information on the students’ learningoutcome and their changes of learning habits through films in general and sitcoms

in particular The survey was designed with several multiple choice questionnairesand one open-ended question, which were easy for students to finish easily andquickly

3.5.6 Data analysis.

According to McMillan and Schumarcher (1993), “the data analysis inqualitative research involves the researcher in an inductive process of organizingdata in categories and identifying patterns” The data in this study were analyzed asfollows:

Firstly, the researcher read through all the observational field notes, interviewtranscripts, and questionnaires and then grouped in to several broader categories Finally, the researcher offered explanation, and drew conclusions

3.6 Summary

This chapter mainly discussed the methodology of this study; the theoreticalframework of the research was presented It also described the methods to collectthe data and the procedure in data analysis

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS

This chapter shows the results based on the analysis of questionnaires, classobservation, interviews and students’ recording As mentioned in chapter 3, the

Basic Speaking initial questionnaires were used to check students’ attitude toward

to oral skills, how often do they have chance to speak English inside or outside

Chart 4-1 Students’ attitude toward the speaking English skill

class, and check their knowledge on sitcoms The results were collected from 35students with 12 questions without having students writing their names down Forthe first question, “Do you like speaking English? Yes/ No? And why not?, thenumber of “ yes” answers was 19 out of 35 accounting for 54.3 % and thepercentage of “ no” answers was 45,7 % with 16 answers

There were several reasons were pointed out by students explaining whythey don’t like speaking English even though they are English major students Someclaimed that they feel shy and not comfortable when speaking English, somethought speaking English is too difficult and challenging for them, and some saidthat the speaking class is so “dry” and make them sleepy The researcher shapedthese reasons into 3 groups, “low confidence”, “low motivation”, and “low ability”.The answers in these groups “low confidence”, “low motivation”, “low ability”were 10, 13, and 8

Chart 4-2: The students’ triple “L”

As can be seen from the chart, the “low motivation” is the main reasonleading the “losing interest in speaking”

“Those speaking classes, which I have attended before, were so dry Theactivities were so boring and familiar that just only few students enjoy them Thelanguage in the course book is really heavy and sounds unreal And the teachersalways look like Professor Snape in Harry Potter”

[Anonymous student]The honest answer of this student covers almost the main factors in group

“low motivation” Teacher need to work hard to raise student’s interest up again

According to the collected results; 94.3 % of students has a strong dialectaccent and 100 % of them wants to sound like a native speakers However, only 5students are enthusiastic about speaking class, “always” speak English 22 students

“sometimes” speak and 9 students confessed that they seldom speak in class Inorder to improve their oral skills outside class ; 40 % of students meets internationalteachers to practice speaking , 14 % students is regular members of English clubs ,and over 40 % students admitted that they have never thought about practicingspeaking English outside class As the result, the average of speaking English time

of 54.3 % students is from 1 to 2 hours per week, the rest doesn’t spend any hours

The next question is “Do you like watching English movies with English subtitles?”the answers for this one were far different than expected 77.2 % of students are notkeen on watching English movies with English subtitles, and most of them admittedthat they are big fans of Korean drama Only 22.8 % of students like watchingEnglish movies There were 12 students “ sometimes” watching English movieswith English subtitles, 21 students “seldom”, and 2 students confessed that theyhave never watched English movies with English subtitles, even though, 100 %percent agreed that English movies can help them learn English better Vocabulary,grammar, intonation, and culture were all the factors which students realized theycan learn from the movies.

Chart 4-3 Factors that students can learn from movies

According the chart, the culture factor had lowest answers with only 6.Students at this age and at this level haven’t realized how important culture value is

in speaking and how culture affects the way people use English yet

There were 24 students who didn’t have any definitions about sitcoms whenbeing asked about this kind of TV programme And all of them haven’t had anylearning experiences with sitcoms yet