MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY
EVALUATION OF ENGLISH SPEAKING TEACHING METHODS FOR GRADE 10 AT LE THI HONG GAM HIGH SCHOOL
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) | TRUGNG DAI HOC MO TP.HCM THU VIEN Submitted by TRAN THI HOAI GIANG, BA Supervisor
NGUYEN KIM DUNG, Ph.D
Trang 2ABSTRACT
Learning English for communication is increasingly becoming an essential need, corresponding to the open-door policy of Vietnam in the process of industrialization and modernization Accordingly, speaking and speaking teaching methods should have been paid much attention to
In reality up to the present time, many researches have been done on speaking but methods of teaching speaking skills have actually not been systematically evaluated Therefore, this study was conducted to determine if the current speaking teaching methods were appropriate and met the objectives of teaching speaking for grade 10 defined by the Ministry of Education and Training In order to serve the aims of the study, copies of the questionnaire were administered to all tenth-grade students Observations and interviews were also carried out with 5 teachers of English at Le Thi Hong Gam High School in Ho Chi Minh City in May, 2010 In addition, oral tests were used for 40 tenth-grade students at the same time to evaluate students’ actual speaking performance after they finished their grade 10
The results of the study clearly pointed out the using of Grammar-Translation method, Audio-lingual method and Communicative Language Teaching in teaching speaking skills for grade 10 by teachers at Le Thi Hong Gam High School More importantly, according to the data collected, a large number of tenth-grade students could achieve the objectives of teaching speaking set by the Ministry of Education and Training for grade 10 From discussions, Communicative Language Teaching was suggested being used as the main method for teaching speaking skills Teachers might additionally make use of some suitable techniques of Audio-lingual method Further, some difficulties in the process of teaching speaking skills were indicated and so did the possible solutions
Trang 4TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .- G G SH HH ng nu i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ƠN HH kg L1 111111111 1kg Hy Hành Hà il F50) (in e iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 0.0 cececceseccsnecssnecesceeaeseseceaeecsseceacessaseseneesseeessenseeegs V LIST OF EIGURES - Ặ GG HH nọ ng ng kg X LIST OF TABLES xl _ˆ\.114)4/7.0009) 50008 xii CHAPTER]: INTRODUCTION T24 1 1.1 Background to the study HH HH re KH ke 1 1.1.1 General background 1 1.1.2 Problems at Le Thi Hong Gam High School .cccccsssseccceccessesssneeeeseseseees 2 1.1.2.1 The students’ iSSUes .::sssssssssssssseeseecceeceesceeensaneneanaasssaseeseseeceseeeeeeeees 2
1.1.2.2 The teachers’ iSSues .:::sssessseseeeeeeecceceeseenaeeaeeeessssecsseeesescceseeeeseseeess 3
1.2 Statement Of PULPOSE o 3
1.3 Research questions - HH TH gà 4 1.4 Significance of the SfUY - - Gọi H 4 1.5 The scope and limitation of the study - «- TT kg nrre 5 1.6 Overview Of thesis Chapf€FS ng ng và 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Q LH HHH HH HH khu 7
2.1 Teaching speaking skiÌÌS -s« che he 7 2.1.1 What 1s spoken EnglIsÌl? - c c cv vn g Y gn n n H tnHy 7 °ˆÄ I0 -‹i 1n § 2.1.3 Sub-skills influencing spoken prOÍICI€TCY Hy vs, 10 2.1.4 Stages of teaching speaking HH ng ch 11 2.1.4.1 Pre-speaking (presentation stage) .cccccccccccccececcecsesssesseseeeeseeeceeeeeeees II 2.1.4.2 While-speaking (practice SÍaØ€) LH HH HH ng kh reh 12
Trang 52.1.5 Principles of teaching speaking skills .c.eessccccsssssccesssseeceesseeecessseeecesseees 14 2.1.6 The common English speaking teaching methods + 555 cs+5s 552 14 2.1.6.1 The Grammar- Translation method - - - «s s c1 11 11 1111111551555 15
2.1.6.2 The Audio-lingual method - 5: 2 se scsd ¬ 16
2.1.6.3 The Communicative Language Teaching .:csseseseeeeeeeceneeeeneeeeeees 20 X5 (10) (0i 000/2 90 000088 23 2.2.1 Definition of evaluation and its significance in language teaching 23 2.2.2 Principles of teaching evaluation .ccceessccccessssecessesseceesseeeeesseeeeseseseeeees 24 2.2.3 Rubrics and their importance in teaching praCfIC€ c5 5S vs 26 2.2.4 Bloom”s TaXOnOTMY - Ặ G8 00 56 28 2.3 Researches on evaluation of English speaking teaching methods 29
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY HH ng nh 30
3.1 Research SIf€ SH HH ky cọ HH H99 key 30 3.2 Participants and samplÏing., - .- «+ HH ng ng 30 3.2.1 Classroom observation participants cccssscccccesessssseeccesesssssseccecseeesseeeeeees 31 3.2.2 Questionnaire parẨÍCIDATIVS cu HH ng ng hy 31 3.2.3 InferVIieW DATLÍCIDATẨS -Q G Q Q H nn g 32
3.2.4 Oral test participants nh ố 32
3.3 Methods of data coÏÏ€CfIOA - - c1 SH ng kg 33 3.4 Data collection InsfrUIm€đfS - - «cv HH ng 36 3.4.1 Classroom ObsS€rVAfIOTNS . -GG T H ngư 36 3.4.1.1 Rationale for using classroom obS€rVAfIOTS cà ng ve 36 3.4.1.2 Description of the classroom observation checklISt - ‹ ««« | 3Ĩ 3.4.2 Questionnaire for SfUd€nS - c + + 10 HH 882445 s0 36 3.4.2.1 Rationale for using questiOnnair€ - 1111 Ỳ 9 1.113 x55 36
3.4.2.2 Description of the questiOnnir€ -c ch ng nen 37
Trang 63.4.4 Oral tests for Students .ccccccccssscccccsscscecssccccussecsceeveceseccscceeeesscoeesceeesauccees 39
3.4.4.1 Rationale for using oral teSts ccccccssssceeececseseeeeeecssseeeneesescesssseeees 39 3.4.4.2 Rubrics for evaluating students’ speaking ability at the end of grade 10 39
3.4.4.3 Description of the ora’ tests ¬ 40
3.5 Data collection prOC€dUF€S 1 H990 ng ng re 4I 3.6 Analytical framework — 43 CHAPTER 4: DATA REPORT, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 44 an 44 4.1.1 What kinds of English speaking teaching methods are being used for grade 10 at LTHG High Sehool? ¬ 44
4.1.2 Are those English speaking teaching methods appropriate with the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOET? 47 4.1.2.1 The improvement level of students’ speaking skills at the end of grade 10 48
4.1.2.2 Students’ levels of fluency, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and
interaction with listeners at the end of grade lÍŨ -ss««csssssrsrsrrree 50 4.1.2.3 The objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 defined by the MOET and teachers’ evaluation of the appropriateness of their current methods of teaching English speaking with those obJeCfIV€S HH vn 58 4.1.3 How should English speaking be taught at LTHG High School in order to meet the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOET? ««c<<<« Ố.Ẽ 61 4.1.3.1 The difficulties that teachers have encountered in teaching English speaking at LTHG Hipgh School - + c9 no k v 61 4.1.3.2 The ways to teach English speaking at LTHG High School in order to meet the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by
the MOETT” ng ng ven ¬ 62
Mu on hố ố .ẻe 63
4.2.1 Methods of teaching English speaking skills being used at LTHG High School64
Trang 74.2.2 The appropriateness of those teaching methods with the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOET .0 67 4.2.3 The difficulties in teaching speaking and solutions . <«««<<<<<<+ 73 - 4.2.4 Concluding remarKs - 5 ssssssssssrsre LH ng ng KT ng, 78 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS - 79 ha ể0i 0i 7n .- 79 5.1.1 Research Question 1: What kinds of English speaking teaching methods are being used for grade 10 at LTHG High School? . - 5+ cSccs<ss<<essss xe 79 5.1.2 Research Question 2: Are those English speaking teaching methods appropriate with the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOIE/T? Ặ - L1 9990 999 0 1H ng ng 1 1e 80 5.1.3 Research Question 3: How should English speaking be taught at LTHG High School in order to meet the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOIE/TŸ? - - SG ng 80
#Ä¡;ư9 i11 1ẼẼẺẼ78 5 a 81
„NI a 81
5.2.2 SfU€TIẨS - GHI ve 83
5.2.3 The school managers, the DOETT, and the MOET - «<5 << ss2 83
5.3 Suggestions for further researCh - ST ng ng kệ 85 REFERENCES .ố 86 APPENDICTES - - QQ TH ng HH TH 95 APPENDIX 1: THE OBJECTIVES OF TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING FOR GRADE 10 IN HIGH SCHOOLS DEFINED BY THE MINISTRY OF
EDUCATION AND TRAINING .cccccsccsccscsesscsssssscssesssesessseseessacsesseseesesesessesseeees 95 APPENDIX 2: CLASS OBSERVATION CHECKLIST scscscssessssesessseecsseecseeeenees 98 APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS -. 5-5-5- 552 100
APPENDIX 4: BANG CÂU HOI KHAO SÁT DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH 104
Trang 8APPENDIX 6: THE CONTENT OF SPEAKING TESTS FOR TENTH-GRADE
STUDENTS on ecsessssssesssssssesssssssesseseesssecsvssssucsesscssscsesscssscssssesecssstsssacsseavsacsecaseny 113 APPENDIX 7: SOME SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS TO MAKE
CONVERSATION WIH STUDENTS . ¿- ¿2 ¿5552 E2E£Ee+EeErEerkererxee 117
APPENDIX 8: PHIEU DANH GIA KY NANG NOI CUA HỌC SINH 121
APPENDIX 9: THE RESULTS OF SPEAKING TESTS ¿-5- 55s: 123
Trang 9LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: The effect of evaluation on our teaching (L Dee Fink, 1999) 5 Figure 2.1: Units of spoken language (Van Lier, 1995, p 1Š) «-5¿ 7 Figure 4.1: The number of students who were learning speaking skills outside
LTHG High School - - - - Ác TH nọ 0v nga 48
Trang 10LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: The distinction between the key terms evaluation, assessment, measurement and test (Kerri-Lee Krause, Sandra Bochner, and Sue Duchesne,
2003, p 405) c.ccccccecce 23
Table 3.1: Interview participants° background - c1 2xx, 32 Table 3.2: Levels of 40 students for oral f€SfS ĂĂ 2131295555555 x22 33 Table 3.3: Classes of 40 students for oraÏ †€SÉS - ĂS n1 Hs rey 33 Table 3.4: Research design - - - - G0 kg 35 Table 3.5: Data collection pFOC€UFC 0Q HH ky 42 Table 4.1: The speaking activities in speaking lessOnS s++<< <<: 45 Table 4.2: The level of improvement of students’ speaking skills at the end of grade
0 (4 49
Table 4.3: Students’ level of fluency at the end of grade 10 . - -«- 50 Table 4.4: Students’ vocabulary at the end of grade 10 - -++ 52 Table 4.5: Students’ grammar at the end of grade 10.0 eceesssecesenereeeeenseeees 33 Table 4.6: Students° pronunciation at the end of grade IƠ <-++<+<< 55 Table 4.7: Students’ level of interaction with listeners at the end of grade 10 56
Table 4.8: The difficulties that teachers have encountered in teaching English speaking at LTHG High School L - - .- «s19 ng nh 61
Trang 11ALM APEC ASIAN CLT DOET GTM LTHG MOET ABBREVIATIONS Audio-lingual Method
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Association of South-East Asian Nations Communicative Language Teaching Department of Education and Training Grammar-Translation Method
Le Thi Hong Gam
Trang 12CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study
1.1.1 General background
Communication is considered as an integral part of human daily activities by which people can share ideas and thoughts with others In line with the trend of globalization, people are required to be able to interact with foreigners especially in English - an international language of various fields including business, politics, diplomacy, culture, education and entertainment English has indeed been regarded as a means to bridge the gap and promote mutual understanding and cooperation among countries all over the world That is why teaching and learning English for communicative purpose have been increasingly central to every nation Due to the growth in the status of Vietnam when it became an official member of many international organizations such as the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASIAN) in 1995, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1998 and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2006, Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has been put in pressure of comprehensively innovating English teaching and learning in order to equip students with good communication skills in English
Therefore, teachers of English especially in high schools need to provide students with the medium of instruction to acquire knowledge of science, modern
technology, and cultures worldwide; therefore, they can easily integrate into the
Trang 13‘speakers’ of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many of if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak.”
With the aim of helping teachers and students achieve expected results, many methods of teaching speaking skills have appeared during the revolution in teaching methodology Each kind of those methods in reality has both facets of advantages and disadvantages, depending on different teaching situations So as to fully exploit the benefits of the methods, evaluating the effectiveness of different methods of teaching speaking skills in particular teaching circumstance is necessary for teachers while they take the cognitive learning style of their students into consideration However, there has hardly been any investigation into evaluation of English speaking teaching methods in Vietnam until now The expectation of finding out if there was any appropriateness of the current methods of teaching English speaking with the objectives of teaching English speaking in high schools defined by the MOET, thus, generated the ideas from which this study came into being
1.1.2 Problems at Le Thi Hong Gam High School 1.1.2.1 The students’ issues
Trang 14play an extremely important role in motivating students and improving students’ speaking skills especially for the case of tenth-grade students who have just entered high schools and got a lot of influences from teachers’ teaching methods
1.1.2.2 The teachers’ issues
The English staff of Le Thi Hong Gam High School consists of seven teachers whose ages are from twenty-six to fifty-five They actually graduated from the University of Pedagogy or the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City with the formal training in English teaching In term of the teaching load, each teacher of English at this school often takes up five periods a week for one class Observably, the average number of teaching periods is from twenty-five to thirty-five per week In spite of being busy, most of them are enthusiastic and willing to make use of the new methods especially in teaching speaking skills Nevertheless, the teachers are sometimes confused about the appropriateness of their current methods of teaching English speaking with the objectives of the MOET As a teacher of Le Thi Hong Gam High School, hence, the researcher finds it extremely necessary to evaluate whether the English speaking teaching methods being used at the school can help students achieve the speaking ability as the MOET requires after they finish the school-year
1.2 Statement of purpose
Accordingly, the study reported in this thesis has been conducted in an attempt to meet the obvious need for more research on teaching evaluation It was actually designed to help the teachers have a critical look on their current teaching and then timely have applicable regulations of their English speaking teaching methods The detailed aims can be specified as follows:
Trang 15e To evaluate if those teaching methods meet the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOET
e To suggest the most suitable English speaking teaching methods to meet the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 defined by the MOET in the current teaching and learning situation at Le Thi Hong Gam High School
1.3 Research questions
When doing the research, the researcher focuses and tries to find out the answers of the following research questions:
1 What kinds of English speaking teaching methods are being used for grade 10 at Le Thi Hong Gam High School?
2 Are those English speaking teaching methods appropriate with the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOET?
3 How should English speaking be taught at Le Thi Hong Gam High School in order to meet the objectives of teaching English speaking for grade 10 in high schools defined by the MOET?
1.4 Significance of the study
Trang 16English speaking teaching methods and create a balance between preparing students for the standardized examinations and for life-long language skills According to Fink (1999), all of teachers have the potential of getting better and better over time If they do not collect the information about their own teaching and make an effort to improve some aspect of it during their teaching process, they might level off in quality or sometimes even decline (see the arrow in Figure 1.1) "a" Our Potential as Teachers Quality of our Teaching “RB” Teachers who Evaluate “c” Teachers who do nat Evaluate Time ———>
Figure 1.1: The effect of evaluation on our teaching (L Dee Fink, 1999) Also, basing on the truth of the teaching and learning English speaking at Le Thi Hong Gam High School, the school managers would make some suitable policies facilitating teaching and learning English speaking there
1.5 The scope and limitation of the study
Trang 171.6 Overview of thesis chapters
The thesis consists of five chapters To begin with, chapter one provides an introduction to the topic of the research by stating the background, the statement of purpose, the research questions, the significance, the scope and limitation, and the overview of the thesis Next, chapter two reviews the literature relevant to the topic of the research and summarizes what has been done and what has not yet been done about the topic so far, pointing out the gap that the present thesis would bridge Then chapter three states the research methodology in term of the research site, participants and sampling, methods, instruments, procedure of data collection and the analytical framework After that, chapter four reports and analyzes the
rollected data then has some discussions Finally, chapter five draws conclusions
Trang 18CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The previous chapter grounds the problem examined in this study This chapter aims to review the literature relevant to the topic of the present study and then to shape a theoretical framework which the study would be based on to find out the answers for the research questions The first two sections address two important points: teaching speaking skills (2.1) and evaluation of teaching (2.2) The final section deals with research on evaluation of English speaking teaching methods
(2.3)
Trang 19Figure 2.1 shows the model suggested by Van Lier (1995) in order to clarify spoken English in term of its particular elements More specifically, the model was divided into three columns The left column points out four original areas of linguistic analysis, consisting of discourse, syntax, morphology and phonology
The center column lists the units of spoken language such as text, utterance,
clause, phrase, word, morpheme, phoneme and distinctive feature The right column describes the ways to convey meanings in spoken English via the supra- segmental phonemes, including rhythm, stress, and intonation In respect of characteristics, spoken English is received in auditory way; as a result, the spoken message is temporary and its reception by the student is usually immediate (Van Lier, 1995) In order to help students improve their speaking skills, it is really essential for teachers to fully understand those above interrelated components 2.1.2 The nature of speaking
Trang 20In regard to speaking nature, Hymes introduced the concept of communicative competence in 1967 Among various definitions of communicative competence, the description of Richards, Platt, and Weber (1985) is a typical one They described communicative competence as the ability that people were able not only to apply the grammar rules of a language so as to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use these sentences to whom In other words, those who have communicative competence can interpret and enact suitable social behaviors as well as have the active involvement in the production
of English (Canale and Swain, 1980; Celce-Murcia et al., 1995; Hymes, 1972)
Communicative competence generally requires the speakers more than linguistic competence In the 1970s, the research on communicative competence indicated how communicative competence and linguistic competence differed from each
other (Paulston, 1974) More details, it is the difference between knowledge that is
about language forms and knowledge that makes a person able to communicate functionally and interactively Communicative competence includes not only linguistic competence (knowledge of grammar and vocabulary) but three other
components (Canale and Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983, Swain, 1984 cited in Xu Li-
sheng, 2000) They are the ability to utter an applicable thing in a particular social context (sociolinguistic competence); the ability to begin, continue, and finish a conversation consistently and coherently (discourse competence) and the ability to communicate in an effective way and solve problems resulted from communication breakdowns (strategic competence)
Trang 21attention to communicative competence during the process of teaching speaking skills to language learners
2.1.3 Sub-skills influencing spoken proficiency
The macro skill of speaking is a combination of smaller sub-skills (McCarthy and
O’Keeffe, 2004; Dornyei and Thurrell, 1994; McCarthy, 1998; Richards, 1994;
Hedge, 2004) More specifically, Bailey and Lance Savage (1994) point out five components that are generally recognized in analyses of the speech process:
fluency, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and interaction A firm mastery of
all mentioned sub-skills is necessary for full English speaking competency
To begin with, Nunan (2003) explains that speakers who get fluency are able to use English in a quick and confident manner with a few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, and words searchers Speaking English fluently has such a great influence in our life that people cannot ignore it As important as accuracy, according to Nunan (2003), accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech meets what people actually say when they use English Moreover, Harmer (2001) affirms that accuracy involves the correct use of language with respect to grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation More specifically, concerning grammar, the correct use of language regarding to word form and word order at the sentence level needs to be concentrated In term of vocabulary, accuracy is the appropriate choice of words used to express meaning as well as lexical range Likewise, accuracy in pronunciation can be thought of as the production of speech sounds in the way that is easily understandable to most listeners
And last, but by no means least, interaction is evaluated through immediate,
Trang 22control separate constituents such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns and Joyce, 1997)
As a whole, five components mentioned above all would be used in order to build the speaking criteria for students, teachers and examiners to evaluate students’ speaking skills via questionnaire, interviews and oral tests However, producing the appropriate and meaningful messages should be mainly focused rather than grammatical accuracy (Kitao & Kitao, 1996)
2.1.4 Stages of teaching speaking
It has been said that a speaking lesson can bridge for learners the gap between the
classroom and the world outside So as to build this special bridge, the teachers
need to focus on the following major stages 2.1.4.1 Pre-speaking (presentation stage)
Aiming to supply the students with clear information about the language they are learning, teachers must present them both the meanings of the language and how to use it As a result, they can see the connection between forms and functions, which is really useful for them to know how to choose the right patterns to express their ideas and feelings (Nunan, 1999) However, in this introduction stage, it is | extremely dangerous to spend so much time presenting that the students cannot get
enough time to practice the language themselves (Byrne, 1986)
One of effective ways to present a new language use is in contexts (Harmer, 1991), which can be shown through texts and activities Dialogue and passage are two specific types of texts In term of advantages, dialogues supply students with not only models of spoken language which are necessary for them to build up their
Trang 23oral ability but a framework of showing how speakers interact (Byrne, 1986) Besides, Byrne (1986) supports that new language uses should not be pre-taught in the dialogue and translated for intermediate or advanced learners so that they are able to acquire the strategies of guessing the meanings in the context Various kinds of related oral practice especially discussion of ideas in the passage should also be taken into account Together with texts, activities are needful in presenting a new language use Byrne (1986) divides activities into structured and
unstructured ones In particular, with structured activities, students are given a
systematic introduction to an item of language to make its meaning clear In his view, this technique should be accepted as a quick effective way of conveying the item meaning and is useful for some quick pre-teaching because it can elucidate a point in a text which the context has failed to make clear (Byrne, 1986)
Furthermore, through unstructured activities, the students can communicate by
using the language they have already known Basing on the students’ performance, the teachers have the ability of deciding what new language to be taught to those
students On the other hand, unstructured activities are more suitable at post- elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels, where students know quite enough
of language to communicate (Byrne, 1986) 2.1.4.2 While-speaking (practice stage)
Trang 24On the other hand, it is group work by which students are able to express a variety of language functions (Long, Adams, Mc Lean and Castanos, 1976) Many activities of cooperative learning are adequate preparation for real interaction, and they have built-in mechanisms to solve some common communication problems in English classroom (Amold, 2003) Group work promotes students’ responsibility, independence as well as learning motivation and contributes to a feeling of cooperation and warmth in class (Ur, 1996)
As significant as the two mentioned above, class work has its own role in helping students to learn a language (Byrne, 1987) and leads to the negotiation of meaning than the interaction with teacher (Doughty and Pica, 1986) Students are actually prepared for real opportunities of communicating outside the classroom (Nunan, 1999) Activities for practice should be great fun, slightly communicative and provide students with an acceptable blend of confidence and enjoyment (Harmer, 1991) Oral drills, information gap activities, games, personalization and localization and oral interaction are such typical techniques for oral practice (Harmer, 1991)
2.1.4.3 Post-speaking (production stage)
According to Byrne (1986), all activities at the post-speaking stage are aimed at oral fluency which is promoted by two main factors Firstly, students have to work on their own in different ways such as working individually, working in pairs and working in groups Talking about the benefits of group work, Broughton et al (1980) states that it is really an active tool especially at the stage of freer production because of automatically less teacher control and more pupils - centeredness in any work done in groups Secondly, students need to be provided with the activities which are appropriate to the level of the students and can involve the students Following speaking experiences, it is really necessary to give
Trang 25dents opportunities to reflect upon their performance; accordingly, their speaking can be gradually improved k aie 2.1.5 Principles of teaching speaking skills 2E V nh Son
‘Brown (1994) points out some following principles of teaching speaking which ‘teachers should keep in mind when organizing speaking activities To start with, the teaching content needs to be practical and usable in real-life situations and concentrates on speaking with the language students have Moreover, teachers ‘might provide students with suitable feedback and correction but do not disturb ‘their flow of communication In addition, both interactive fluency and accuracy should be addressed, especially striving for communication Further, communication strategies such as asking for clarification, paraphrasing, using gestures and initiating should be encouraged Lastly, it is really useful for the teachers to know each student’s personality and then to encourage the quieter one to take more risks, which can be done due to teachers’ participation in the activities but at appropriate level If teachers seriously follow these principles, achieving success in teaching speaking skills is not a difficult problem
2.1.6 The common English speaking teaching methods
Being a complex social and cultural phenomenon, teaching is not as easy to carry out as it appears (Elizabeth, 2007) For this reason, together with always keeping
in mind the subject aims and objectives, student needs and interests, and the
appropriate environmental situations for students, the teacher is required to amend the teaching methods and clearly understand their nature, principles, advantages
and disadvantages Besides, each of the different teaching methods has contributed
Trang 26different social and educational needs, they have different theoretical consideration According to Bailey (2006), among a variety of teaching methods, there are three ones that have dominated in language teaching especially in teaching speaking They are the Grammar-Translation method, the Audio-lingual method and Communicative Language Teaching The typical features and principles of each method would be reviewed in this part, focusing specifically on how the method treats the speaking skills
2.1.6.1 The Grammar-Translation method
The Grammar - Translation method has been used by many language teachers for years This method is known as the offspring of German scholarship since it was first used in the teaching of classical languages, Latin and Greek (Chastain, 1988) The GTM has the purpose of helping students be able to read the literature of a particular culture through learning grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), the GTM has some following key characteristics: (a) Reading and writing are mainly focused while speaking and listening seem to be ignored
(b) Vocabulary is chosen by basing solely on the reading texts and taught in the way of presenting their translation equivalents via bilingual word lists, dictionary study and memorization
(c) Sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice Teachers and students spend a lot of time translating sentences into and out of English
(d) A main focus is on accuracy Students are asked to reach high standards in
translation
Trang 27(e) Grammar is taught deductively — that is, teacher presents grammar rules first then students are expected to practice through translation exercises
(f) The students’ native language is considered as the medium of instruction
Regarding the mentioned characteristics of the GTM and the purpose of communication, Krashen (1987) gives the conclusion that the GTM makes no effort, neither explicitly nor implicitly, to help students be successful in making conversations with native speakers Considerably, the GTM does not focus on preparing students to speak English; therefore, it is not suitable for those who expect to better their speaking skills With the GTM, speaking is carried out in the way of reading translations loudly and doing grammar exercises orally In spite of the indicated disadvantages, “the Grammar - Translation method is still widely practiced, it has no advocates; it is a method for which there is no theory” (Richards and Rodgers, 1986, p 5)
2.1.6.2 The Audio-lingual method
Trang 28of Pavlov — a Russian physiologist, who carried out the experiments on dogs and then discovered the classical conditioning process He proved that behaviors could be learned by means of conditioned association and the association between environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus in the learning process Later, with Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It in 1913 and Behaviorism in 1924, Watson, an American psychologist, gave the basic principles of this new school of thought as well as defined behaviorism Behaviorism at that time had a deep impact on psychology and education and went on dominating for the next fifty years with the appearance of operant conditioning of Skinner, which demonstrated the effect of punishment and reinforcement on behavior Generally, behaviorism has contributed a lot to the finding of effective ways for human teaching and learning
Basing on the theory of behaviorism, Richards and Rodgers (1986) affirm that in the ALM foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation Giving correct responses is concentrated on rather than making mistakes to form good habits The opportunities of making mistakes are actually minimized through memorizing dialogues and performing pattern drills Richards and Rodgers (1986) also emphasize that if something is repeated more often, students’ habits and learning will be stronger and greater
In addition, Larsen-Freeman (2000) explains that new vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialogs in the ALM The teacher presents a good model to students in the first stage and then asks them to practice a lot by using
drills such as single-substitution, multi-substitution, transformation, and question-
answer drills More specifically, at the beginning of the lesson the teacher introduces to students a new dialogue, demonstrates and repeats that dialogue
meanwhile the students listen carefully, and then the students repeat a line several
Trang 29person’s lines After that, the teacher and students switch their roles More
difficultly, the class can be divided in half; each half plays roles and later changes
their roles until there is no hesitation at all Observably, the students work so hard
that they are able to respond automatically Also, it should be carefully noted that the habit of using students’ mother tongue is thought to interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language Therefore, the target language is used in the classroom not the students’ native language (Richards & Rodgers, 1986) Furthermore, making errors is needful to be avoided and corrected at once because errors themselves might cause the formation of bad habits In the ALM, the teacher obviously is the authority who directs and controls students’ language
behaviors
In details, there are some following typical techniques (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) (a) Backward build-up (expansion) drill: Teacher separates a sentence into some smaller parts and then asks students to repeat each part beginning at the end of the sentence and expanding backwards the sentence, adding each part in sequence (b) Repetition drill: Students are asked to repeat what the teacher models as rapidly and exactly as possible
(c) Chain drill: Students are required to ask and answer each other in turn
(d) Single-slot substitution drill: Teacher presents a line in the dialog After that, teacher gives a word or a phrase as a cue that students, when repeating the line, must replace into the sentence in the correct line
(e) Multiple-slot substitution drill: This drill is nearly the same as single-slot substitution drill except that there are multiple cues to be substituted into the line (f) Transformation drill: Students are expected to transform the given sentences into other structures
Trang 30To sum things up, Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979) point out the features of Audio- lingual method as bellows:
(a) Phrase memorization, mimicry and over-learning are relied on (b) Sentences and structures are learned by repetition
(c) Little attention is paid to the explanation of grammar (d) |New words are learned in the context
(e) Students are encouraged to speak only the target language (f) | Proper pronunciation is necessary
(g) | Accurate responses are reinforced
(h) Meaning and content are considered not as important as proper manipulation of the language
Apparently, the theory of the ALM proposes that frequent repetition and correction need to be involved in language lessons to form good habits for students Structures and dialogues are practiced until students are able to produce
utterances fluently and automatically While this method focuses on oral skills,
producing speech is tightly controlled in order to reinforce correct habit formation of linguistic rules (Lazaraton, 2001) Teachers indicate spoken errors at once, in hopes of preventing students from forming bad habits (Bailey, 2006) Besides, most of the interaction in the classroom is between the teacher and students and is directed by the teacher (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) Consequently, it has been thought that teaching speaking requires no more than engineering the repeated oral production of structures but concentrates on the development of grammatical and phonological accuracy combined with fluency (Bygate, 2001)
On the other hand, the ALM has a big problem that students are not able to readily transfer the habits they have mastered in the classroom to communicative use outside it (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) In spite of providing potentially good tools for Second Language Acquisition, the lack of concentration on meaning and fluency
Trang 31of the ALM detracted from its success Additionally, the results observed from
classroom practice were disappointing in some way, which emphasizes that repetition, over-learning, and avoidance of errors were not the best way to learn a second language (Brown, 2000) Moreover, Lightbown and Spada (1999) point out the fact that students have no reason to think about repetition void of meaning; as a consequence, they do often not understand what they are repeating In truth, the pattern memorization does not lead to fluent and effective communication in real-life situations (Ellis, 1990) Further, Ellis (1990) affirms that the ALM quickly lost its popularity in the United States, partly resulting from the strong theoretical arguments that were advanced against it For those analyzed reasons, teacher needs to have an appropriate regulation in using the ALM and its techniques, to thoroughly exploit the benefits and to avoid the shortcomings at the same time
2.1.6.3 The Communicative Language Teaching
Trang 32Followings are the distinctive characteristics of CLT
(a) Everything is done with communicative purpose (Larsen Freeman, 2000) (b) Information gap, choice and feedback are three common features of _ communicative activities including games, role plays, songs and problem-solving
tasks (Johnson and Morrow, 1981) Information gap tasks are activities in which students are required to use English to convey information known to them but not
to their classmates (Bailey, 2006) Students have their own choice to choose what
to say and how to say in communicating (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) Feedback provides students with knowledge of how successful their performance has been (Larsen-Freeman, 2000)
(c) Authentic materials are used (Larsen-Freeman, 2000)
(d) Students carry out communicative activities in small groups (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) Accuracy is often downplayed; students’ ability to convey their message is emphasized (Hammerly, 1991) In order not to interrupt students’ flow of communication, teachers should note the errors during fluency-based activities and return to them later with an accuracy-based activity since errors are seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills (Larsen-Freeman, 2000)
(e) It is necessary for the teacher to use English as much as possible not only during communicative activities, but for explaining the activities to the students or in assigning homework (Larsen-Freeman, 2000)
(f): To be the key to the improvement of students’ English speaking abilities (Shumin, 1997), classroom interactions are the processes by which the partners in
a conversation can reach agreement (Lynch, 1996) It is when the whole class can
be engaged in conversation not only between teacher and students but also between student and student in a way which actually helps the students to learn (Bygate, 1987) because interaction is actually co-production (Allbright and Bailey, 1991) The teacher might present some part of the lesson and then sets up situations that prompt communication between and among the students in various
Trang 33configurations: pairs, triads, small groups and whole group (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) Doughty and Pica (1986) emphasize that working in groups makes it easier for learners to interact than working with the teacher
Unlike the ALM, CLT focuses on the semantic content of language learning Students are asked to take part in a number of suitable activities with different tasks so that they can improve their communicative competence In order to choose the appropriate activities, teachers need to base on how well they engage students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than merely mechanical practice of language patterns (Richards and Rogers, 1986)
Talking about applying CLT in Vietnam, Canh (1999) holds a view that it is
necessary to question the appropriateness and relevancy of CLT developed in another part of the world to Vietnamese pedagogical contexts Likewise, Ellis (1996, pp 213-218) highlights that for the CLT to be made appropriate with Asian conditions, it needs to be “both culturally attuned and culturally accepted” through a useful tool - “mediating” “In this way the nature of what eventually takes place in the classroom involves the teacher’s ability to both filter the method to make it appropriate to the local cultural norms, and to re-define the teacher-student relationship in keeping with the cultural norms embedded in the method itself” (Ellis, 1996, pp 213-218)
From what has been analyzed in the section, it can be concluded that each teaching method has its own benefits and shortcomings Remarkably, teachers need to carefully take the teaching contexts into consideration so that they can have effective choices of suitable teaching methods and principles For the survey carried out at Le Thi Hong Gam High School, the researcher uses the mentioned
Trang 34questionnaire, and interviews to indentify what kinds of English speaking teaching methods are being used
2.2 Evaluation of teaching
2.2.1 Definition of evaluation and its significance in language teaching
The term evaluation has been defined in a variety of ways Generally, Lynch (1996) affirms evaluation is considered as the systematic attempt to put information together so as to make judgments or decision Further, Kerri-Lee Krause, Sandra Bochner, and Sue Duchesne (2003) modify in education evaluation is related to making judgments about the relative or absolute worth of
entities as varied as an essay, a dance performance, a class project, a curriculum, a
new teaching method or a state-wide school system Evaluation actually requires not only description but judgments and interpretation
Table 2.1: The distinction between the key terms evaluation, assessment, measurement and test (Kerri-Lee Krause, Sandra Bochner, and Sue Duchesne, 2003, p 405) Terms Definitions Gathering, interpreting, recording and communicating information about student Assessment achievement Evaluation Making judgment about relative or absolute worth _| Measurement | Testing student performance using numerical values in the form of scores Test An assessment procedure used systematically to measure a sample of behavior Necessarily, the distinction between the key terms evaluation, assessment, measurement and test should be made clear According to Kerri-Lee Krause,
Trang 35Sandra Bochner, and Sue Duchesne (2003, p 405) their differences can be
summarized as in table 2.1 above
One of the critical aspects in teaching evaluation is having a shared language and understanding of key terms Thoroughly understanding the different purposes of
evaluation process might facilitate the process of evaluating In term of purposes, evaluations can be classified into two categories - formative and summative (Scriven, 1967) Regarding formative evaluation in teaching, evaluation activities are done to supply teachers with the information that they can use to improve their
teaching The information seems to be private, confidential and rich in detail;
therefore, teachers can get clear insights on nature of teaching for personal use On the other hand, summative evaluation in teaching gathers information to make personnel decisions without intending to provide rich and detailed data for improvement of teaching (Scriven, 1967) These two kinds of evaluations can be powerful tools for informing decisions about teachers’ professional development opportunities if they are combined together (Nolan and Hoover, 2005) Evaluative information has two kinds of forms including qualitative and quantitative As such, those kinds of information can be collected by many different methods In reality, evaluation plays a very important role in the process of improving the quality of teaching and learning Teachers might know their strengths and weaknesses; accordingly, they are able to remedy the current teaching situation
and modify their teaching for the benefits of students’ learning 2.2.2 Principles of teaching evaluation
Trang 36kground of the students, the resources available, and the nature of the course Hall and Fitzgerald (1994) also point out some following typical principles of ‘ ching evaluation: h) Improving teaching should be the main purpose of any teaching evaluation bcheme
b Student feedback must be considered as a substantial, primary element in leaching evaluation schemes
k) In the case of evaluating teaching for assessment purposes, student feedback becds to be combined with the evidences from other suitable sources such as peer review, individual reflection, and expert observation
fd) A representative sample of an individual’s teaching activities should be bovered in order to collect the teaching evaluation data
fe) It is important to recognize the differences between the information collected from formative and summative evaluations in case the results of teaching evaluations are to be integrated into decision-making related to career progression In other words, information obtained for the exclusive purpose of improving teaching, and often collected before that teaching is complete, might be
incompatible to take into consideration when making judgments
(f) Those who use the results of teaching evaluations for decision-making related bo career progression should be skilful in interpreting and drawing together the Wifferent sources of information
(g) There should be different evaluation instruments for different audiences In addition, it is necessary for each evaluation instrument to only include items for which that audience is capable of giving informed responses
(h) Evaluation instruments should be designed on the basis of recognized good practice, teaching and learning theory and accepted research findings
(i) Questions relating to an individual’s performance and questions covering the
contributions of others teaching or involved in the course need to be clearly
Trang 37
kparatcd
b The procedures of administration of an evaluation should be adequate and dardized; accordingly, the validity of the information obtained would be
tected
) Clear guidelines and evaluation purposes should be fully provided for the bvatuated |
® Clear rules governing the confidentiality of evaluation information and reports
must be included in evaluation schemes
(m) It is vital to always get ready for regular review of the evaluation schemes and
of the institution’s evaluation procedures
2.2.3 Rubrics and their importance in teaching practice _
According to Szpyrka and Smith (1995), rubrics are defined as sets of criteria or scoring guides which describe performance or understanding levels Via rubrics, students might know clearly about what will be assessed, standards that need to be met and information about where students are in relation to where they need to be
In term of classification, rubrics can be divided into holistic and analytic With a holistic rubric, the teacher is required to score the whole process or the whole
product in stead of judging the component parts separately (Nitko, 2001) Meanwhile, an analytic rubric requires the teacher to score each separate parts of the product or performance first, and after that to sum the individual scores to obtain a total score (Moskal, 2000; Nitko, 2001) Before designing a specific rubric, the teacher must make a decision if the performance or product will be scored holistically or analytically (Airasian, 2000 and 2001)
Followings are primary steps in the process of designing scoring rubrics for
Trang 38Step 1: Review all the learning objectives that need addressing by the task
Step 2: Determine the detailed observable attributes which the students need and do not need to show in their performance
Step 3: Brainstorm the features that describe each attribute and then find out the ways to describe different levels of performance for each observable attribute identified in step 2
Step 4a: In the case of holistic rubrics, write painstakingly careful and accurate narrative descriptions for excellent work and poor work merging each attribute into the description and then describe the highest and lowest levels of performance together with the descriptors for all attributes
Step 4b: In the case of analytic rubrics, write painstakingly careful and accurate narrative descriptions for excellent work and poor work for each individual attribute and then describe the highest and lowest levels of performance using the descriptors for each attribute separately
Step 5a: In the case of holistic rubrics, complete the rubric by describing other levels on the continuum ranging from excellent to poor work for the collective attributes and write descriptions for all intermediate levels of performance
Step 5b: In the case of analytic rubrics, complete the rubric by describing other levels on the continuum ranging from excellent to poor work for each attribute and write descriptions for all intermediate levels of performance for each attribute separately
Step 6: Collect samples of student work that illustrate each level Step 7: Revise the rubric if necessary
Th teaching practice, rubrics can be seen as the important bridge connecting evaluation and teaching, by which teachers are able to picture the specific teaching
‘quality and since then teach students more effectively Rubrics might make
tteachers’ work more consistent as well as easier and the evaluation will be more
scientific, clear and persuasive Besides, using rubrics might reduce the time for
ET
Trang 39pachers to score and explain the results to students and their parents Thanks to
’ tics, students can also recognize the expectations of teachers and schools, and : ve more motivation in learning Students might even base on the rubrics to self- À luate; as a result, they are more independent and responsible for their own keming Additionally, using rubrics helps students develop and better their jommunicative skills through discussing with parents, teachers, and friends Apart fom teachers and students, students’ parents can get a lot of benefits from using thrics They might deeply know what their children need to achieve; thus, they ire able to help their children to better their own learning
B Ẹ
2.4 Bloom’s Taxonomy
In order to evaluate the students’ abilities, various tools have been able to be used
in term of cognitive field, Benjamin Bloom announced his famous study — a slassification of learning objectives within education in 1956 This professor of Chicago University identified six different levels of critical thinking skills, ranging from easy to difficult, simple to complex They were knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation With the aim of fitting the more
utcome-focused modern education objectives, Bloom’s Taxonomy was revised
xy Anderson and Krathwohl forty-five years later They changed the names of the evels from nouns to active verbs and reversed the order of the highest two levels it the same time The new order is remembering, understanding, applying, inalyzing, evaluating and creating
Trang 40classify kinds of students as well Consequently, the English learning assessment
is more objective, accurate and effective
2.3 Researches on evaluation of English speaking teaching methods
Up to now there have been many researches on teaching speaking skills These researches all emphasize the importance of speaking skills in teaching and learning a language especially for communication However, the number of researches on evaluation of English speaking teaching methods seems to be limited That is the reason why the researcher needs to carry out this study in order to help related objects deal with the urgent problem of teaching and leaning speaking skills in high schools