IMPROVING THE STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILLS AT TRIEU THI TRINH HIGH SCHOOL

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study Nowadays in Vietnam, more and more people have to use English in nearly every field of their life, so the importance of learning and using English as an international language continues to increase Speaking, therefore, is considered one of the most important skills to be mastered by the students in order to communicate English fluently In every classroom, the teacher tries all his best to improve the students’ speaking skill However, most of the students at Trieu Thi Trinh high school find it quite difficult to improve their speaking ability It is shown that, the students have little time and few chance to practice speaking English, as the old saying “Practice makes perfect” Byrne, D (1980: 121) also states some problems that may prohibit the students to develop their speaking skill, which are inhibition, lack of ideas, low participation and students’ preference to use their mother language Because of these, all Vietnamese language teachers are encouraged to find out the most useful ways to solve these problems Among several strategies used to improve students' proficiency such as visual aids, CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), drama, role-play, and so on, games are another useful strategy to promote students' language proficiency (Richard - Amato, 1996) However, up till now, not many studies were carried out about this issue and it seems that applying games into English speaking classes has not reached the success as expected All of the reasons above, I carried out this study to examine if using games can help the students improve their speaking ability It was expected that the results of this study would confirm the effectiveness of games on speaking skill for all language teachers at Trieu Thi Trinh high school who were still suspicious about the real effect of using games And after this study, there would be more teachers choosing games as a good aids for teaching speaking 1.2 The school and classroom culture At Trieu Thi Trinh high school and many other high schools in general, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum with the purpose to equip the students with the basic knowledge about grammar and vocabulary However, the students' speaking ability is still at a very low level They can hardly communicate with the others in English They lack chance to have real-life use of the target language Therefore, there are many obstacles in teaching and learning English in general, in teaching speaking in particular Being aware of the importance of English in communication, our school has invested to improve the quality of teaching and learning four skills of English, especially focused speaking skill The teaching and learning conditions are therefore improved with good furniture and communicative approach is also applied into English classes Some language teachers in the school also had chance for further study to get more knowledge and experience in teaching However, with too many problems they have to face in teaching process, the complement of the new methods into their classes have not reached the success until now One of those problems that not only our school, but also most of other schools in Vietnam have is large class size In a limited time with too large numbers of students, English teachers find it very difficult to control and organize the class The chance for all the students in a class to practice speaking is thus, not possible Besides that, the fact shows that the grammar-translation approach is still dominant in most of the language classes in our school The teachers mainly focus on teaching grammar and vocabulary for the students In class, the students often listen and copy the teachers’ lectures into the notebooks, learn by heart these notes, and write down what they remember in the tests All these made the students in our school become more and more passive when learning English and they not know how to learn by themselves for further knowledge In speaking lessons, these students feel uncomfortable and reluctant to join in communicating in English As a teacher, I find that the students’ motivation in speaking class is not really high Most of them are found to be passive and unwilling to speak English In speaking lessons, they are often in silence, some look outside the class, and some even feel asleep Some of them can hardly make any sentence of English, even in the simple English grammar structures For all reasons, using English for communication is still one of the most serious issues of the language teachers in our school 1.3 The study and its rationale As stated above, most language teachers at Trieu Thi Trinh high school clearly know the important role of speaking ability in their course Although, the students feel bored and stressed in learning speaking, the teachers are seen to be difficult to find out a useful way to motivate students to speak in class Especially, It is impossible for all students in one large class to have chance to practice English Because, this is seen as a great challenge for all teachers to solve and face with Besides investing good and modern furniture for supporting learning conditions, the change of the teaching methods in speaking class needs to be solved 1.4 The aims of the study While teaching a full-time class at TTT high school, I recognized the problems facing my students Although, it was known that there were a lot of challenges, I still decided to conduct this study in an effort to find out the best way to help the students improve their speaking ability as well as increase their motivation and interest in English speaking class It was also hoped that through games, the students had chance to learn in a funny and comfortable atmosphere This made them feel more confident and willing to communicate in English with their partners Through this study, I also wanted to confirm the real value of games with the teachers and the students who were still suspicious about the effects of games With the great hope that, those teachers would not be reluctant in applying games into their language classes LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Games and motivation in Speaking Games have been shown to have many advantages in learning speaking English According to Richard – Amato (1996), even though games are often associated with fun, we should not lose sight of their pedagogical values, particularly in second language teaching Games are useful because they promote motivation, reduce students' stress, create an enjoyable learning environment and give the students the opportunity for real communication The main reason why games are considered effective learning tool is that "they spur motivation and students get very absorbed in the competitive aspects of the games; moreover, they try harder at games than in other courses" (Avedon, 1971) It is said that gaming in its various forms can motivate and interest learners Discussing this, David and Hallowell (1989:3) also claimed “Because games demand and promote a high degree of students’ participation, they motivate to a greater extent than conventional textbooks or worksheets” In a language class, games are an important source to promote motivation, interest and a game is often seen as the first step to get the students’ attention to their learning When students feel fun, their learning can happen almost without anyone noticing Because “Play is an important part of the learning experience when we enjoy learning, we learn better”, said Rose and Nichol (1999:63) The second reason why games are often used in language classes is that they reduce the students' stress In language classrooms, there is a high level of stress because students have to face unfamiliar or unknown grammatical structures, words, texts and so forth Therefore, students often feel uncomfortable and insecure in class, which surely affects their learning ability As a result, “Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely” (RichardAmato, 1988:147) It is believed that when students play games, they feel relaxed and have fun, and want to learn more Since students know that they are playing games and want to communicate effectively, they not worry about making mistakes and not try to correct themselves in every single sentence Thus, they learn unconsciously, learn without realizing they are learning Besides that, studying for a long time often makes students very feel tired and stressed, it is therefore, very essential to create an enjoyable learning environment for them It is easy to recognize that students become more excited and more active while they are playing games This also makes the atmosphere of the class become more cheerful and more enjoyable In the report of Huyen and Nga (2003), students said that they like the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness and the motivation that games brought to the classroom In fact, while studying in an enjoyable atmosphere, students are supplied with chances to practice more their speaking skill, and they can show their understanding about what the teacher has just taught them quickly and easily In short, the advantages of games in language learning are countless When a game is applied, it does not show one advantage separately but some of these advantages at the same time 2.2 METHODOLOGY 2.2.1 The participants The participants of this study consist of 45 students (grade -10B1) at Trieu Thi Trinh high school Their ages range from 15 to 16 years old including 23 females and 22 males Most of these students come from many different rural areas in Nong Cong district where English is taught as a compulsory subject in the curriculum Thus, they not have good conditions and chance to improve English, especially four skills Before entering our school, most of these students already studied at least years (from grade to grade 9) as one of the compulsory subjects at secondary school Therefore, they all have already obtained basic knowledge of English including basic structures and common vocabulary Their English level is in general not high and limited because their scores of English when entering our school are very low This is a large class with different abilities, motivation as well as interest Therefore, it is seen as a good sample for this study 2.2.2 Data collection instruments To meet the aims of the study, three different instruments used for data collection were classroom observation, questionnaire and students’ interview The classroom was observed carefully from the beginning to the end of the study by recording into two observation sheets (Appendix 1) which were specially designed for evaluation In addition, two questionnaires were designed for students to investigate the students’ attitudes towards speaking lessons before and after using games One survey questionnaire was given to the students at the beginning of the innovation and one another was distributed after the sixth week of the study At last, I interviewed four students selected randomly in the class to know their real feelings towards games 2.2.3 The research procedure This table below was brief outline of the procedure to conduct the study Week (from 15 February to 15 April) Week Week Activities - The “traditional way” was used to teach students The teacher asked students to the oral tasks as usually - Applying Information-gap game: “Getting to know each other” into the speaking lesson - Topic: Questions characteristics Week and answers about personal - Guessing game called “Hiding and finding” was applied in the warm-up activity of the lesson - Topic: Asking questions and making suggestions Week - Using Information-gap game: “Habits and Hobbies” - Topic: Talking about hobbies Week - Using matching game: “The seven families” - Topic: Asking and talking about personal information Week - Using role-play game: “Rock and Boat” - Topic: Asking for directions Week - Applying information-gap game: “Casanova’s Diary” - Topic: Asking and talking about future or past events Week - Collecting and analyzing data Comparing with data collected from the first week - Discussing and giving conclusions of the innovation Firstly, It was really necessary for the teacher to have small discussions with her students to find their most common problems in English speaking learning Also, the teachers told the students the essential role of communicative ability in modern society nowadays as well as told them serious results if they did not try to solve the problems they were facing in speaking class After that, the teacher explained clearly with the students in her class the purpose of this study as well as introduced to them about game activities and the role of games in helping them improve speaking skill Through this, the author hoped that the students understood the reasons why she used games in speaking lessons to get their high agreements and supports during the study In the first week of the study, the students were taught in traditional way, without using games The teacher observed them carefully and took notes what was happening in the speaking lessons by using Observation Sheet which aimed to get more information about the students’ interests, participation as well as motivation to oral activities before the study Additionally, the teacher used Observation Sheet in order to observe overall class atmosphere After the first week, a questionnaire was distributed to all students in the class to fill in to get their attitudes and ideas about their speaking lessons without change To help the students in class could understand all the questions well and answer them, the teacher translated the questions into Vietnamese to give them The students were encouraged to answer truly what they thought because they were told about the aim of this survey questionnaire as well as the innovation before From the second week to the fifth week, oral activities with games were applied into speaking lessons During these lessons, the teacher continually observed twice the students’ behaviors and attitudes towards the speaking lessons with game activities The teacher used note-taking technique to write down main comments on what were happening during the speaking lessons One more observation was conducted after two months of the research This observation focused on the classroom atmosphere, the students’ participation to the lesson and the changes compared with the first observation Continually, a survey questionnaire including questions was distributed to the participants right after they finished the study and they were asked to fill in the questionnaire individually to check their attitudes towards language games and their speaking lessons with game activities In this one, the students were also told the purpose of the survey questionnaire and were encouraged to answer them honestly To make sure that the students could understand all the questions, and did not misunderstand about what they chose, the teacher helped them to explain more each of the questions if necessary Finally, the teacher interviewed some students who were selected randomly to know more about their feelings and reactions about the speaking lessons with games and in order to identify the answers collected from the questionnaire FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 FINDINGS This section included the results collected from class observation, the survey questionnaire and students’ interview before and after the study The first part of this section was the data analysis of the first observation and questionnaire before applying games The second one was the results from two other observations and survey questionnaire as well as the students’ interviewing after applying game activities into speaking lessons 3.1.1 Data analysis before change a Data collected from Observation sheet and Observation sheet The data collected from Observation Sheets provided the information about students’ on-task and off-task behavior and observation sheet provided the information about overall class motivation in the speaking lessons The details of the data collected were presented below: Table 1: Results from students’ on-task/off-task (Observation sheet 1) First time Raw Percentage On-task 145 30.2% Off-task 335 69.8% (R: Raw; P: Percent) It was seen that only a small number of students nearly 30.2% who involved in the activities of the lesson While the students off-task accounted for 69.3% These numbers indicated the fact that there were amount of the students who were not involved in the speaking lessons They did not participate in the activities in class It could be caused by the teacher’s teaching method used in the class which had something wrong The lessons could be boring or too difficult for the students to understand Due to these, the students’ motivation and participation in speaking lessons were lower Besides these statistics, the teacher saw and felt a passive atmosphere at the beginning of the lessons She could observe the students’ anxious and confused faces when being called to answer There were a few students who were willing and able to answer the teacher’ questions At the end of the lessons, the students showed their tiredness and exhaustion, and they were unwilling to go on with other subjects This was shown well in the Observation Sheet through following table: Overall class observation (first week) Involvement Concentration Enjoyment Persistent attention Activity level Interesting Challenging Appropriateness Total 17 Table 2: Results of overall class motivation The results showed that the class was not motivated as a whole The students in class seemed to be less involved and participated in the activities of the lessons Their motivation was in general very low b Data collected from survey questionnaire The questionnaire distributed to 40 students right after the first week of the innovation were returned enough (100%) The answers of the students paralleled with the results collected from analyzing two Observation sheets The results of questions in the questionnaire were briefly described through the following tables: Table 1: Question (Q1): How you feel at the beginning of the speaking lesson? Options Number of choice Percentage (%) a Comfortable 17.5% b Tired 15% c Sleepy 18 45% d Worried 22.5% Table 2: Question (Q2): How you feel during the speaking lessons? Options Number of choice Percentage (%) a Nervous 22.5% b Comfortable 17.5% c Confident 7.5% d Stressed 21 52.5% Table 3: Question (Q3): How you feel when you are called to answer the teacher’s question? Options Number of choice Percentage (%) a Nervous 12 30% b Confused 20% c Confident 15% d Afraid 14 35% Table 4: Question (Q4): How you feel about the atmosphere of the speaking class? Options Number of choice Percentage (%) Comfortable 17.5 % Stressed 17 42.5% Exciting 5% Passive 14 35% From the results in the tables above, we could see that a high percentage of the students had negative attitudes and feelings towards the speaking lessons To answer for the Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, most of the students (72.5%) agreed that they felt worried, tired and sleepy at the beginning of the speaking lessons, 52.5% felt stressed during the lessons, and 85% felt afraid and nervous when being called to answer Furthermore, instead of having funny speaking activities in the class, they had to learn in a passive atmosphere Table 5: Question (Q5): What you think about the level of the activities and tasks in the speaking class? Options Number of choice Percentage (%) Easy 2.5 % Appropriate 11 27.5% Difficult 21 52.5% Very difficult 17.5% Table 6: Question (Q6): How you feel about the way the teacher corrects your mistakes? Options Number of choice Percentage (%) Satisfactory 22.5 % Unsatisfactory 23 57.5% Critical 15% Suitable 5% 10 In Q5, when asking about the level of the activities and tasks in the speaking lessons, over haft of the students (70%) said that the tasks given by the teacher were too difficult for them to complete This raised the anxious feelings for most of the students 72.5% of the responses in Q6 did not satisfy with the way the teacher corrected their mistakes They did not see the teacher’s encouragement and satisfaction with any their answer The students also complained that the teacher often interrupted them while they were answering the questions This made them feel losing faces The atmosphere of the class thus, became more uncomfortable and highly stressed for the students 3.1.2 Data analysis after the change a Data collected from Classroom Observation • Observation sheet Observation sheet also focused on the students’ on-task and off-task behavior From the results in the table, it was seen clearly that the students were much more involved in the speaking activities with games There were a large number of the students were on-task in the second time of observation, up to 67.7% Only 32.3% of the students were off-task Especially, in the third time of observation, the number of the students on-task increased in 76%, and the number of the students who were off-task decreased in 24% The data collected showed that applying game activities into speaking lessons was quite effective As the teacher’s observation, the students became more engaged and participated in speaking activities with games In class, they were more interested in the lessons and more active than usual When joining in game activities, the students forgot their fearing of making errors Thus, they could speak better and more naturally with their partners about the topics they were interested in In the last observation, the students’ speaking ability and motivation were significantly different from them in the first week They were really confident to speak in English • Comparisons the results collected from class observation before and after change After three times of classroom observation, the results collected were shown in the chart (Chart 1) in order to evaluate clearly the change in the students’ speaking ability as well as their motivation before and after the innovation 11 Chart 1: Student times on-task/ off-task behavior Through the chart above, we could see that, the students who were on-task behavior increased considerably from 30.2% in the first time, 67.7% in the second time, and up to 76% in the last Observation The data collected indicated that implementing games in speaking class was really effective When the students engaged more in the lessons, they became more active and motivated • Observation Sheet Observation sheet focused on observing overall class motivation Through the total score collected was 33, it indicated that overall class was highly motivated in this observation The students found the speaking activities with games more interesting This accounted for the increase of their involvement, concentration as well as persistent attention in the lessons Most of the students were observed to be very active and excited with the relaxed atmosphere of games This was quite different when comparing with the data collected in the first week which was seen clearly in the chart below: Chart 2: Overall Class Observation) 12 The total score collected before applying games into speaking lessons was only 17, while 33 was the total score collected after implementing games These results showed that the students’ motivation in the classes without games was much lower than their motivation in the classes with games This difference determined that implementing games in speaking lessons was appropriate for the students at my school b Data collected from the second survey questionnaire Data collected from the second questionnaire as follows: In the Q1 and Q2, all the students (100%) agreed that the speaking lessons with game activities were interesting because they supposed that games did not help them relax but also help them study better This meant that through games, they would not feel stressed in a long period of study Answering for the Q3 (Table 3), we could see a high percentage (72.5%) of the students confirmed that they had chance to practice English much more with games which they could not before 17.5% of the students thought that games were good for them to get knowledge with pleasure And 10% of the students said that they could play freely without being afraid of anything else Games brought to the class a funny atmosphere which was good for even shy students involved in speaking activities Question 3: Table 3: “What you benefit from game activities?” Options Number of choice Percentage (%) 13 Chance to play 10% Chance to get knowledge with pleasure 17.5% Chance to practice English 29 72.5% Nothing 0% Answering for the Q4 “Do you feel afraid of speaking in the class with games?” most of the students (93%) answered that they did not feel afraid of speaking in the class Because when taking part in game activities, the funny atmosphere of games made them forgot that they were learning Each of them tried his best to be the winner which meant that the nervous feelings of making errors disappeared In the Q5 “Are you satisfied with using games in your speaking lessons?” most of the students answered “yes” which specially expressed their feelings of satisfaction towards games Through games, they became more motivated and interested in speaking lessons Games brought them the confidence in communicating in English, helped them be able to express their own ideas naturally That was the reason why in the last questions, many students admitted that their speaking ability was better than before c Findings from the students’ interview To confirm one more the positive results collected from the class observation and survey questionnaire, I interviewed four students selected randomly in the class The results indicated that, four students answered that they liked games very much because games were funny and useful for them in learning speaking Now, they did not feel nervous and worried in the speaking lessons In opposite, they had good attitudes and feelings towards the speaking lessons Most of them showed their satisfaction with this change 3.2 CONCLUSION This study was an effort to explore the effectiveness of games on students’ speaking improvement In a limited time, It was not easy to design the tests as well as to measure objectively the improvement of the students’ speaking ability However, the findings from the classroom observations, survey questionnaire and students’ interview provided us the reliable information about the effects of games in learning English, especially in learning speaking skill It could be seen that both teacher and students felt satisfy and happy with using games and considered it as a great success for the change of currently problems in the speaking class Games 14 was specially significant because they not only provided motivation but also made the students change their attitudes and feelings towards speaking lessons 3.2.1 Experience initiative evaluation Overall, this study has gained remarkable results in improving students’ speaking ability and increasing their motivation in speaking lessons However, there were still some limitations which should be addressed as follows: - It can be that the results of this study may be not generalized to a wider population because this study was just conducted in a small scale with a number of participants selected not randomly (only in one class) It will be better and more valid for the future teacher to select a larger number of participants randomly from different classes for the study Additionally, the time for conducting this research was limited which could affect to the findings collected Therefore, the future studies should be carried out in a long period of time - It is difficult for a teacher to manage a game activity and involve a large number of the students in the class in it Besides that, when the students become excited and motivated with games, this means there will be a lot of noises which affects to the next studying classes - This study mainly focused attention on observing the students’ motivation and participation in speaking class as well as overall class atmosphere in general, but did not check how much the students improved their speaking ability 3.2.2 Further recommendations In order to gain the most benefits from games and to confirm the value of games in language teaching and learning process at Trieu Thi Trinh high school, it is better for the language teachers to consider games as essential part of each lesson and use games more commonly and frequently in their language classes Also, games should be considered a speaking teaching model of many other teachers Additionally, It could see that using games in class has significant and positive effects to the students’ speaking However, it was not easy for the teachers to choose and introduce suitable games to students because not all games are appropriate for the students Different levels of students acquire different topics, materials and types of games Some games may be too difficult for students when the topic is not suitable with the students’ ability Thus, in order to reach the good results as expected, teachers should select games carefully which are suitable with particular teaching and learning context, topic of the lesson as well as the students’ needs It is also necessary for the teachers to specially pay attention to guide and control pairs or groups in class when using games to make sure that all students in class have chance to engage activities 15 In conclusion, this study played a special role in encouraging and increasing the students’ motivation and interest in speaking Games are really effective for both the teachers and the students at TTT high school in their teaching and learning speaking process Hopefully, this study will be useful and valuable for those who are interested in this problem for further study, and who want to help learners improve their English speaking skill It is also expected that it will encourage more teachers of English to use games in their speaking classes and find more effective ways to develop this skill for the students REFERENCES Avedon, M.E (1971) Learning Through Games The Study of Games (p 76) New York: John Wiley & Sons Byrne, D (1980) English Teaching Perspective Long man Group Ltd Nguyen, H., & Khuat, N (2003) Learning vocabulary through games Asian EFL Journal, 5(4) Retrieved February 13, 2009, from: http://www.asian-efljournal.com/dec_03_sub.Vn.php Richard-Amato, P A (1996) Making it happen New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Group Pp 192-199 16 Saricoban, A., & Metin, E (2000) Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching Grammar Retrieved October 10, 2009 from the world wide web: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Saricoban-Songs.html Wright, A., Betteridge, D., & Buckby, M (1984) Games for language learning Cambridge University Press Evaluation of school board Date: 05/5/2017 I declare that this assignment is my own work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion SIGNED: TRAN THI HOA TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study……………… ………………………………….1 1.2 The school and class context…………………………………………… …1 1.3 The rationale…………………………….………………………… ……….2 1.4 The Aims of the experience initiatives…………………… ………… .2 LITERATURA REVIEW 2.1 Games and motivation in Speaking…….…………………………….……… 2.2 Methodology 17 2.2.1 Participants ………………………………………………………….….… 2.2.2 Data collection instruments…………………………………………… … 2.2.3 Procedure……………………………………………………………… … FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION 3.1 Findings 3.1.1 Data analysis before change……….…………………………………… .7 a Data collected from Observation sheet and Observation sheet 2……………….7 b Data collected from survey questionnaire…………………………………… …… 3.1.2 Data analysis after change……………………………………….…… … 11 a Data collected from Classroom Observation ………………………………….….11 b Data collected from the second survey questionnaire ……… ……………… 13 c Findings from the students’ interview……………………………………………….14 3.2 Conclusion 3.2.1 Experience initiative evaluation……………………………………… … 15 3.2.2 Further recommendations………………………………………… ………15 Preferences…………………………………………………………… ……… 17 Appendix……………………………………………………………… ………… 18 ... separately but some of these advantages at the same time 2.2 METHODOLOGY 2.2.1 The participants The participants of this study consist of 45 students (grade -10B1) at Trieu Thi Trinh high school Their... and its rationale As stated above, most language teachers at Trieu Thi Trinh high school clearly know the important role of speaking ability in their course Although, the students feel bored... the students at the beginning of the innovation and one another was distributed after the sixth week of the study At last, I interviewed four students selected randomly in the class to know their