the use of pictures to engage young learners in speaking activities at new oriental english school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY THE USE OF PICTURES TO ENGAGE YOUNG LEARNERS IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT NEW ORIENTAL ENGLISH SCHOOL Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES Major code: 60140111 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: HO THANH MY PHUONG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH City, 2015 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled, “The use of pictures to engage young learners in speaking activities at New Oriental English School” as the statement of requirements for thesis in Master’s Programs at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, issued by the Higher Degree Committee Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution Ho Chi Minh City, October 2015 NGUYEN VU ANH DUY i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyen Vu Anh Duy, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan, or reproduction of theses ii ABSTRACT Pictures can move people, stir up curiosity, provide inspiration and motivation for speaking, and generally enhance learners’ classroom experience (Keddie, 2009:7) With the use of pictures in speaking activities, the current research aims at (1) investigating to what extent young learners can improve their speaking skill, and (2) exploring their attitudes towards the use of pictures in the activities To achieve the first purpose of the study, the author conducted an experimental research at New Oriental English School with the use of pictures in speaking activities for the Experimental group (EG) consisting of sixteen students, and without the use of pictures in speaking activities for the Control group (CG) consisting of sixteen students To measure the development of learners’ speaking skill before and after the treatment, the researcher used a pre-test and a post-post to compare the mean scores of the two groups As a result, although there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups before and after the treatment, the mean scores of the post-test showed that the EG outperformed the CG In addition, observations, questionnaires, and interviews were employed to explore learners’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities The results revealed that learners in the EG showed their great interests and motivation, and responded positively towards the application of pictures in learning speaking Finally, basing on the findings, the research offered some recommendations for teachers and school administrators and suggestions for further research relating to the use of pictures in teaching and learning English, especially for teaching and learning English speaking skill iv TABLES OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS… .ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .iii ABSTRACT… iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES… x ABBREVIATIONS xii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem 1.2 Statements of the purpose 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Limitation of the Study 1.6 The Organization of the Study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Communicative competence 2.1.1 Communicative language teaching 2.1.2 The practice of teaching and learning speaking skill in classroom 2.1.3 The teaching of spoken language functions in classroom activities 2.1.4 Children proficiency of learning spoken language 12 2.1.5 Children’s ability for meaning negotiation and demands for more complex tasks 13 2.1.5.1 Children’s ability for meaning negotiation 13 2.1.5.2 Children’s demands for more complex tasks 13 2.2 The use of visual aids in language teaching 14 2.2.1 Definitions of pictures 15 2.2.2 Types of pictures 16 v 2.2.3 Activities used with pictures to teach oral skills for children 17 2.3 The importance of motivation in language teaching and learning activities 18 2.3.1 Types of motivation 18 2.3.2 Factors and elements of motivation 19 2.3.3 Maintaining learners’ motivation 20 2.4 Previous studies and articles related to the current research 21 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY… 24 3.1 Research context 24 3.1.1 Research site 24 3.1.2 Teaching materials 25 3.1.3 The main teaching staff 25 3.1.4 The current teaching and learning English speaking skill at NOES 25 3.2 The population of the research 26 3.2.1 Research samples 26 3.3 Research design 30 3.4 Design of lesson plans for CG and EG 32 3.4.1 A description of the lesson plan for the CG 32 3.4.2 A description of the lesson plan for the EG 34 3.5 Research Instruments 36 3.5.1 The pre-test and post-test design 37 3.5.1.1 The pre-test contents 40 3.5.1.2 The post-test contents 40 3.5.2 Observation 41 3.5.3 Survey Questionnaire 43 3.5.4 Interview 47 3.6 Procedures of data collection 48 3.7 Analytical framework 49 3.7.1 Experimental data analysis 50 3.7.1.1 Mean (X) 50 3.7.1.2 Standard Deviation (S.D.) 50 vi 3.7.1.3 Independent samples T-test 50 3.7.1.4 Pair samples T-test 50 3.7.2 Descriptive data analysis 51 3.7.2.1 Frequencies (f) 51 3.7.2.2 Percentages (%) 51 3.7.3 Content analysis 51 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 53 4.1 Participants’ performance at pre-test and post-test 53 4.1.1 Comparisons of Mean scores and Independent Samples T-test of CG and EG in Pre-test 54 4.1.2 Comparisons of paired samples T-test of CG and EG after treatment 54 4.1.2.1 Paired samples T-test of CG on Pre-test and Post-test 54 4.1.2.2 Paired samples T-test of EG on Pre-test and Post-test 55 4.1.2.3 An Independent Samples T-test of CG and EG on Post-test 56 4.2 Learners’ attitudes toward the use of pictures in speaking activities 57 4.2.1 Analysis of observations for EG 57 4.2.2 Results of the research questionnaires 59 4.2.2.1 Learners’ opinions about the use of pictures in speaking English 59 4.2.2.2 Levels of learners’ interest in speaking activities through pictures 62 4.2.2.3 Learners’ evaluation on the levels of difficulty for each activity with the use of pictures in speaking 65 4.2.2.4.Learners’ recommendations or suggestions 68 4.2.3 Results of the interviews 59 4.2.3.1 Learners' opinions about the use of pictures in speaking 59 4.2.3.2 Learners’ opinions about speaking activities through pictures 70 4.2.3.3 Learners’ perspectives on the helpfulness of pictures in speaking activities 73 4.2.3.4 Learners’ suggestions about the use of pictures in speaking activities 74 Chapter 5: Discussions of the findings 76 vii 5.1 To what extent the use of pictures affects the development of the learners’ speaking skill 76 5.2 Learners’ attitudes toward the use of pictures in speaking activities 77 5.2.1 Learners’ interest and motivation about the use of pictures in English speaking 77 5.2.2 Learners’ opinions about the usefulness of pictures in speaking English 78 5.2.3 Learners’ responses to specific speaking activity through pictures 79 5.2.3.1 Talk as transaction (Information exchanging) 79 5.2.3.2 Talk as performance (Information presenting) 80 5.2.4 Learners’ recommendations or suggestions 82 5.3 Chapter Conclusion 82 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 84 6.1 Conclusion 84 6.1.1 Effectiveness of using pictures to enhance learners’ speaking skill 84 6.1.2 Learners’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities 84 6.2 Limitations of the research 84 6.3 Recommendations 86 6.3.1 Recommendations for teachers and the school administrators 86 6.3.2 Recommendations for further research 88 6.4 Contribution of the study 88 REFERENCES 89 APPENDIXES 95 Appendix A: A sample of a lesson plan for the Control Group 95 Appendix B: A sample of the lesson plan for the Experimental Group 97 Appendix C: A description of speaking assessment criteria 89 Appendix D: Pre-test handout 100 Appendix E: Post-test handout 103 Appendix F: The Observation Checklist 106 viii Appendix G: Pre-survey questionnaire for teachers 107 Appendix I: Questionnaire for students 109 Appendix H: Interview questions for learner participants 112 Appendix J: Sample Transcripts of students’ performance in Speaking Pre-test 114 Appendix J1: Sample Transcripts of CG in Speaking Pre-test 114 Appendix J2: Sample Transcripts of EG in Speaking Pre-test 121 Appendix K: Sample Transcripts of CG and EG in Speaking Post-test 128 Appendix K1: Sample Transcripts of CG in Speaking Post-test 128 Appendix K2: Sample Transcripts of EG in Speaking Post-test 135 Appendix L: Results of CG Pre-test and Post-test 141 Appendix M: Results of EG Pre-test and Post-test 142 Appendix N: Results of Observation Checklists 143 Appendix O: Results of Pre-survey Questionnaire for teachers 144 Appendix P: Results of questionnaire for students 145 Appendix Q: Results of interviews with students 149 ix LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES TABLES Table 3.1.: Criterion to rank students 24 Table 3.2: The learner population of the research 27 Table 3.3: Summary of five Teen classes 28 Table 3.4: The Homogeneity and Distinctions between the Two Classes 30 Table 3.5: Structure of Experimental Design 31 Table 3.6: Description of lesson plans for the CG 33 Table 3.7: Description of the lesson plan for the EG 35 Table 3.8: Summary of the speaking-test design 37 Table 3.9: The description of the pre-test contents 39 Table 3.10: The description of the post-test contents 41 Table 3.11: Summary of the content of the observation checklist for EG 42 Table 3.12: Summary of class visits for EG 43 Table 3.13: Summary of the content of the questionnaires for EG 44 Table 3.14: Summary of participants in the piloting stage 45 Table 3.15: Items reserved, changed, and deleted in the piloting questionnaire 45 Table 3.16 Procedure and duration of conducting questionnaires for EG 47 Table 3.17: Procedure of conducting interviews for EG 48 Table 3.18: Procedures of data collection 49 Table 4.1: Group Statistics on Pre-test of CG and EG 53 Table 4.2: Results of Independent Samples T-test on Pre-test of CG and EG 53 Table 4.3: Paired Samples Group Statistics of Control Group Pre-test and Post-test 54 Table 4.4: Results of paired samples test of Control Group Pre-test and Post-test 55 Table 4.5: Paired Samples Group Statistics of Experimental Group Pre-test and Posttest 55 Table 4.6: Results of Paired Samples T-Test for Experimental Group Pre-test and Post-test 56 Table 4.7: Group Statistics on the post-test of CG and EG 56 Table 4.8: Results of independent samples T-test on the post-test of CG and EG 57 x interesting because he liked to work in groups to discuss the order of a story with friends In responding to the levels of difficulty in each activity used with pictures in talk as transaction, many students (between 25 and 68.75%) agreed that the activities were normal to them Some students (between 25 and 43.75%) found the activities easy and a few students (between 12.5 and 25%) found the activities very easy (figure 4.6: 66) While four students (25%) found finding a picture by listening to a description difficult, no evidence proved that students disliked the activity Finding the differences between pictures was not interesting to two respondents (12.5%) and was difficult for two respondents (12.5%) and very difficult for one respondent (6.3%) This finding seems to be similar with the finding in the interviews when one participant (20%) expressed that he/she disliked finding or comparing the differences between pictures because he/she was confused with the similarities and differences of things in the pictures (figure 4.10: 71) In conclusion, findings from the research instruments revealed that using pictures in talk as transaction could arouse students’ interest Most of students agreed that the use of pictures in these speaking activities were interesting because they could help learners learn speaking better and work in groups to discuss the task or topic more effectively In contrast, a few students (below 12.5%) were not interested in the activities: finding the differences between pictures and discussing the orders of pictures in story because these two activities were difficult for them 5.2.3.2 Talk as performance (Information presenting) Talk as performance or information presenting seemed to be more difficult for students Ranking from the most difficult (consisting of 43.75%) to the least difficult (within 18.8%, in the total of difficult and very difficult), the first position was retelling a story based on a series of pictures (comprising 48.8%) The second position is imagining a story with suggestion from a picture (occupying 31.3%), and the last position is presenting the differences between pictures (accounting for 18.8%) (Figure 4.7: 67) 80 Surprisingly, while retelling a story based on a series of pictures was said to be the most difficult, it was the most interesting for almost students (comprising 75% in a total of agreed and strongly agreed) Only one student in the questionnaires (comprising 6.25%) as well as in the interviews (accounting for 20%) did not show their interest to the activity The student in the interviews said that the activity was so hard for her because she did not have enough vocabulary to express her ideas In contrast, two students in the interviews expressed that the use of pictures in the activity gave them general ideas of the story; therefore, they found it easy and interesting to tell a story with the help of pictures (figure 4.10: 71 and 4.11:73) In spite of being ranked in the second position of difficulty, the activity: imagining a story with suggestions from a picture aroused many learners’ interest While half of students (accounting for 50%) in the questionnaire agreed that they liked the activity, only a few students (three respondents, comprising 18.8%) disagreed to like the activity One student in the interviews expressed that she was not interested in the activity because it was difficult for her to imagine a story, though with or without the help of a picture or pictures Differently, being ranked in the last position of difficulty, the activity: presenting the differences between pictures was the least interesting among the three activities in talk as performance Although the activity was the least interesting, it received more votes for agreed to like than that for disagreed to like (six votes, comprising 37.5% comparing with five votes, comprising 31.3%) In brief, pictures used in speaking activities for talk as performance seem to cause some difficulties for some learners, but they could arouse many learners’ interest as well stimulate their imaginations The important things in the use of pictures in these activities were that pictures gave learners general ideas of topics and good chances to work in pairs or in groups to discuss and solve the problem with their friends effectively Finally, learners felt safe and confident to present the topic with the help of pictures in their speaking 81 5.2.4 Learners’ recommendations or suggestions Learners’ recommendations or suggestions to the use of pictures in speaking activities are so helpful that it could improve the use of pictures for further use or application The results from table 4.9 (p 68) and table 4.12 (p 76) imply that it is more interesting if teachers could use pictures for playing games in speaking activities Importantly, pictures are one of powerful tools that teachers could use to encourage learners in pair work or group work to share ideas or to discuss a problem When choosing pictures for speaking activities, learners preferred to use pictures colorful and derived from animation movies, and pictures relating to learners’ daily life (see table 4.9, p 68 and 4.12, p 75) When using pictures in speaking activities, students might make noise, one student suggested that teachers should make rules to manage the classroom better (in table 4.9) In sum, with the use of pictures in speaking activities learners recommended that teachers should organize games, pair work, and group work so that learners are interested and motivated in speaking English, sharing ideas and discussing a problem with friends Colorful pictures derived from animation movies, and pictures covering learners’ daily life are more vivid and attractive to learners Making rules during speaking activities could help teachers with good classroom management 5.3 Chapter Conclusion The chapter has discussed the results of learners’ performance on speaking pretest and post-test The Findings showed that there are significant developments in speaking skill of students in EG with the use of pictures in speaking activities Although the EG outperformed the CG, it was statistically stated that the difference was not significant Learners’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities are positive Pictures were helpful for learners in many ways such as providing learners with ideas, stimulating their imagination, enhancing learners’ motivation, and promoting their pair work and group work Furthermore, in responses to speaking activities through pictures, though there were difficulties for a few students, most of 82 them agreed that they liked the activities In addition, using pictures in speaking activities for talk as transaction was more interesting and easier for learners than that for talk as performance Finally, the findings showed that learners were more interested in working in pairs and in groups to share ideas and to discuss problems Colorful pictures derived from animation movies and pictures relating to daily life are more vivid and attractive to learners 83 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Basing on the findings obtained from data analysis and discussions, the current study has some conclusions and recommendations for the use of pictures in speaking activities to improve learners’ speaking skill In addition, the study points out some limitations as well as contributions of the study for teachers who want to use pictures in teaching English speaking for learners Moreover, the study would raise some recommendations for the school administrators who are in responsibilities to provide teachers and learners with wide selections of visual aids, especially pictures in teaching and learning English for benefits and enjoyments Finally, the chapter offers some suggestions or recommendations for further research 6.1 Conclusion This study comes up with some conclusions on the effectiveness of using pictures to enhance learners’ speaking skill as well as their attitudes towards speaking activities through pictures 6.1.1 Effectiveness of using pictures to enhance learners’ speaking skill Using pictures in speaking activities can improve learners’ speaking skill Evidence from the pre-test and post- test proved that there was a significant development of the experimental group in speaking skill before and after the treatment Comparing the mean sores of the two groups, the post-test results of the independent t-test indicated that the difference was not statistically significant though the EG had better results than that of the CG 6.1.2 Learners’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities All students had positive attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities Most of learners shared a common agreement that pictures were so helpful and that pictures could provide them with ideas, stimulate their imagination, as well as create a secure, comfortable, and stimulating learning atmosphere so that they felt confident to speak in English Additionally, many learners expressed that pictures 84 could promote their working environment so that they enjoyed the time of working in pairs or groups to discuss the problem with friends effectively and successfully Regarding the speaking activities for talk as transaction (information exchanging) and talk as performance (information presenting), some conclusions from the findings indicated that students were more interested in the activities for talk as transaction; they found that the activities were more appropriate for them In fact, findings of the research showed that pictures made it easy for learners to carry out the activities both in pairs and in groups Learners felt safe, confident, interested, and successful to discover things with friends Careful discussion found that speaking activities for talk as performance were a little more difficult for some learners (comparing with talk as transaction); however, many learners agreed that they liked the activities and enjoyed the benefits that the pictures bring to them in these activities of information presenting Findings revealed that learners enjoyed working in pairs or in groups to discuss the story or to create a new story from their imagination of a picture scene, and practicing retelling a story together In conclusion, findings from the pre-test and post-test together with findings from the observations, questionnaires and interviews concluded that using pictures in speaking activities does not only improve learners’ speaking skill, but also improve learning speaking atmosphere so that learners are interested in learning and can develop their speaking skill Finally, pictures improve learners’ learning motivation, stimulate their imaginations, as well as provide them with ideas to talk about themselves and share something with friends Therefore, most of learners had positive learning attitude towards the use of pictures in speaking activities 6.2 Limitations of the research Although the research receives positive attitudes from all learners, it has some following limitations First, the research is limited to a small group of learners consisting of thirtytwo students aged between eleven and thirteen years old in control and experimental groups The study could not generalize to a population of learners in a large group In 85 addition, this study was conducted at a language center with specific language teaching program for teenagers to improve their speaking skill; therefore, this study could not generalize to learners at secondary school with different purposes in language teaching for students Finally, the study was conducted within one course lasting for eight weeks with eight 30-minute treatments The time was not long enough for the use of pictures in speaking activities to have great enough impact on learners’ development of speaking skill Therefore, although the EG had better results on post-test than that of the CG, the mean scores of the post-test between the two groups were not statistically significantly different 6.3 Recommendations Recommendations for further research relating to the use of pictures in speaking activities, and recommendations for further use of pictures for specific purposes to improve learners’ speaking skill are drawn out based on the findings and the limitations of the current research 6.3.1 Recommendations for teachers and the school administrators Regarding the effectiveness of using pictures in speaking activities and learners’ attitudes towards these activities, recommendations for teachers and for the school administrators would focus on the following issues:  Recommendations for teachers: First, when planning to use pictures in speaking activities, teachers should consider learners’ interest in each activity such as they are more interested in speaking activities for talk as transaction because these activities seem to be easier than that for talk as performance For challenging activities (such as talk as performance), learners might not have enough vocabulary to express themselves straightly; teachers should consider and provide them with adequate vocabulary as well as necessary language structures to express themselves and able to carry the activity successfully 86 In addition, teachers should choose or design speaking activities relating to pair work or group work so that learners can enjoy working together and feel safe to discuss a topic or to solve a problem effectively Furthermore, pictures used in speaking should be clear and related to the activity so that learners can imagine or get ideas from these sources to talk with friends about the topic Finally, teachers should use colorful pictures derived from animation movies and relating to learners’ daily life; therefore, pictures used can make speaking activities more stimulating and attractive to learners The noise from the activity can be good if learners are working with friends to discuss or find out the problem, but it will be bad if learners are not working together In bad cases, teacher can make rules and requirement of time for doing or completing the task so that learners have to focus on the task instead of making noise and wasting time  Recommendations for school administrators: Pictures are so helpful for learners in speaking activities, as well as in writing activities, and in teaching vocabulary Most of the learners were interested in the use of pictures in learning English-speaking skill In addition, using pictures in speaking activities could improve learner’s speaking skill; most of them had positive attitudes towards the use of pictures in these activities Therefore, the school administrators should consider and provide learners and teachers with various kinds of pictures so that teachers and learners are not only motivated to use pictures in speaking activities, but they also have a wide selection of pictures to design appropriate and interesting topics for speaking Finally, considering the language teaching programs for teenagers, the school administrators should encourage teachers to use pictures in their teaching speaking for learners due to the effectiveness of using pictures in speaking activities to make learners interested in speaking English and to develop their speaking skill considerably 87 6.3.2 Recommendations for further research It is prospective for further research to conduct studies on the effectiveness of using pictures to improve learners’ speaking skill at different levels In addition, further studies should extend enough time for learners to get used to working with pictures, and to develop their skills The extension of the research time should be carefully considered so that learners are gradually familiar with the new treatment and begin to interact well with the use of pictures in learning speaking skill Finally, further research should consider learners’ interest and difficulties when choosing or designing activities involving the use of pictures to help learners with their speaking skill and explore their attitudes towards the use of pictures in activities designed or chosen 6.4 Contribution of the study The study has consolidated the usefulness of pictures in EFL teaching and learning Findings from the study proved that the use of pictures in speaking activities could help learners with significant development of their speaking skill In hence, the study has explored learners’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities effectively To be specific, the study has figured out what speaking activities with the use of pictures are interesting and stimulating to learners and what speaking activities seem to be difficult for learners as well their obstacles in conducting the activities The study has also searched for learners’ opinions as well as reasons for their responses to activities with the use of pictures in speaking 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http://r-cube.ritsumei.ac.jp/bitstream/10367/4129/1/LCS_22_1pp718_HOANG.pdf Vaus, D D (2007) Survey in Social Research New York: Routledge Nguyen, T T X (2014) The effects of visual aids on English language vocabulary teaching and learning at Ngo Thoi Nhiem School in Binh Duong Province Wright, A (1989) Pictures for language learning Cambridge handbooks for language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 94 [...]... effectively, the current research involving in the use of pictures to engage learners in speaking skill has the following purposes 1.2 Statements of the purpose The study mainly focused on the application of different types of pictures in teaching English -speaking skill As a result, the primary purpose of the current study was to explore to what extent pictures can improve learners speaking skill Besides, the. .. not investigated in this study Finally, the study focuses on the use of pictures to help learners with their speaking skill only, other skills are not the subject of the study 1.6 The organization of the study/ summary of thesis research Chapter 1: Introduction: the chapter introduces the background of the study that leads the current research in using pictures to teach English speaking for learners at. .. attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities? 3 1.4 Significance of the study The study explored the usefulness of pictures in EFL teaching and learning The success of the study will help teachers understand more about learners interest and difficulties in speaking activities with the use of pictures From that, the teachers can find out appropriate and stimulating activities to help learners. .. their speaking skill Finally, the study will be valuable for the school administrators to be aware of the effectiveness of pictures as a useful tool that can help students improve speaking skill Therefore, the school administrators could conduct essential changes for teaching and learning at the school, and encourage teachers to use pictures in teaching speaking skill for teenagers 1.5 Limitation of. .. aimed at investigating students’ attitudes towards the techniques based on the use of pictures in teaching English -speaking skill With these purposes, the research had the following questions 1.3 Research questions For the purpose of the research, the current study had the following questions: 1) To what extent does the use of pictures help learners with their speaking skill? 2) What are the learners attitudes... interested in the use of pictures However, the use of pictures in teaching speaking was still ignored by many teachers Finally, the researcher realized that the effort to engage learners in speaking activities is always one of the most challenging jobs for many teachers at NOES The author of the research is not exceptional; his wish is to find out effective ways to help learners with their development of English. .. 3.3: Summary of study process 32 Figures Figure 4.1: The results of learners attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities from the observations 58 Figure 4.2: Student’s interest and motivation towards the use of pictures in English speaking activities 60 Figure 4.3: Students’ opinions about the usefulness of pictures in learning English speaking ... Levels of students’ interest about the use of pictures in in information exchanging activities 63 Figure 4.5: Levels of students’ interest about the use of pictures in in information presenting activities 64 Table 4.6: Levels of difficulty in for information exchanging activities with the use of pictures 66 Figure 4.7: Levels of difficulty in information presenting... the activities ask learners to work in groups or whole class to put pictures into a story In other words, they are provided with a picture story in a 17 wrong order; they then have to exchange ideas and discuss various possible versions of the story Strange pictures: the aim of the story is to engage students in their imagination to create a story around the picture Learners can work in groups or pairs... teaching and learning Stages and ways of 4 teaching English -speaking skills for learners, the influence of pictures on the teaching of the skill, and other studies related to the study are included Chapter 3: Methodology: This chapter presents the context of the research site, the population of the research as well how to select out samples for the research In addition, the chapter illustrates the instruments, ... had the following questions: 1) To what extent does the use of pictures help learners with their speaking skill? 2) What are the learners attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities? ... research at New Oriental English School with the use of pictures in speaking activities for the Experimental group (EG) consisting of sixteen students, and without the use of pictures in speaking activities. ..STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled, The use of pictures to engage young learners in speaking activities at New Oriental English School as the