USING BLENDED LEARNING APPROACH TO ENHANCE 9TH GRADE STUDENTS, SPEAKING SKILLS AT THI TRAN SECONDARY SCHOOL

TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and objectives 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Methodology 1.5 Significance PART II: THE CONTENT3 2.1 Theory background 2.1.1 Speaking skills 2.1.1.1 The definition of speaking skills 2.1.1.2 The speaking competences 2.1.1.3 Elements of speaking ability 2.1.2 Blended-learning approach 2.1.2.1 The definition of Blended-learning 2.1.2.2 The benefits of applying Blended-learning approach in teaching speaking 2.1.2.3 Forms of Blended Learning in teaching speaking 2.1.2.4 Materials for implementing blended learning 2.1.2.5 Source of materials in applying blended learning 2.2 The current situation of teaching and learning speaking comprehension at Thi Tran secondary school 2.2.1 The school 2.2.2 The students 2.2.3.The problems of teaching and learning speaking skills at the school 2.3 The application 2.4 The results 2.4.1 Data from the questionnaire 2.4.2 The data from the semi-structured interviews 2.5 The effectiveness of in teaching and learning English Conclusion 18 3.1 Summary 3.2 Pedagogical suggestions 3.3 Limitation Suggestions for further studies20 REFERENCES 20 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for students (English version) I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) II PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale In Vietnam, English has been taught as an important foreign language for a long time but due to grammar-translation method of teaching, Vietnamese students seem to be better at grammar than communicative competence Therefore, according to a large project to investigate the English teaching reform in northern parts of Vietnam, only 5% of students are able to communicate in English after graduation (Hoang et all, 2005) This fact gives rises to the need for nationwide innovation in the teaching methodology in the light of communicative approach Blended learning is one of the recent ways which combines a face-to-face classroom component with an appropriate use of technology The term technologycovers a wide range of recent aspects, such as the internet, CD–Roms and interactivewhite broad It also includes the use of computers as a means of communication,such as chat and email, and a number of environments which enable teachers toenrich their courses Blended learning is very useful for students in learning English because thatenables them to practice language inside and outside the class room, which enhancestheir ability in the language skills, particularly speaking skills, (Pete and Barney2009, p40) Interactive materials on web and CD–Roms offer opportunities to developlanguage skills, such as reading, writing, speaking and pronunciation.All the aforementioned conditions drive the author to carry out the research “Using Blended-learning approach to enhance 9th grade students’ speaking skills at Thi Tran secondary school” Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to improving speaking skills for grade 9th students at Thi Tran secondary school 2 Aim and objectives The aim of this study is to explore the exploitation of using Blendedlearning approach to enhance students’ speaking skill In order to achieve the aim, the writer focuses on finding out the effectiveness of applying Blendedlearning approach in guiding students how to improve their speakingcapability and proposing strategies to teach speaking skills using Blended-learning approach Scope of the study Acquiring speaking skill is a vast issue in language learning However, due to the limit of time, experiences and knowledge, this study touches upon only some applications of Blended-learning approaches which are used in teaching speaking skill and cannot cover all the speaking techniques in teaching and learning 1.4 Methodology The major method which was used in study is qualitative All comments, remarks, assumptions and conclusions of the study were based on the data and analysis Data collections for analysis in the study were gained through the following resources: survey questionnaire, observations, as well as reference books After the data were collected, they were categorized and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain the realistic results.To end with, based on analysis of survey results and references, some pedagogical implications and suggestions in order to improve teaching and learning English speakingskill using Blended-learning approach will be proposed Significance This study points out the effectiveness in applying Blended-learning approach in speaking lessons andIncrease the students’ achievement in English language as well as improve theirspeaking skills.More importantly, it offers some suggestions for teachers to enhance students’ English speaking competence through the use of Blended-learning approach Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching and learning speaking skill for Thi Tran secondary students PART II: DEVELOPMENT Theory background 2.1.1 Speaking skills 2.1.1.1 The definition of speaking skills The teacher has found several definitions of speaking as follows: Channey(1998, p.13) stated that " speaking is the process of building and sharing meaningthrough the use of verbal and non- verbal symbols in a variety of contexts" In the other words, speaking is a skill which need the speaker to interact with others deeply to be perceived and understood, then constructing the meaning, pronouncing, and being fluent and accurate in using grammar and vocabulary From the above display, the teacher notice the ability to speak aforeign language involves several components that speaker need to acquire in order tocommunicate effectively She also added communicative competence must includenot only the linguistic form of a language but also knowledge of when, how and towhom it is appropriate to use this form However, in Vietnam, as the examoriented ways of teaching in secondary schools and no speaking part is included in high school entrance examination, English learning generally emphasizes more on the reading and writing skills than listening and speaking skills 2.1.1.2 The speaking competences To carry out a successful speaking task, the following competences should be acquired: Initiating a conversation: Knowing how and when to open a conversation is akey speaking competence that learners must be taught A study by Mc Cathy and O'keeffe (2004, p 5) has shown that much classroom conversation involves the teacher taking the role of an initiator Turn-taking: This is the interaction management skill that learners would well to acquire what.Bygate (1998: p.65) and Flucher (2003, p 24) illustrate that turntaking and adjacent–pair practice will provide learners within dispensable knowledge of when it is appropriate to listen and talk, for how long, and the preferred response pattern to adopt Verbal and non–verbal symbols: It is the ability to convey meaning by encompassing appropriate expressions verbal and non–verbal in the proper context Channey (1998, p 13) assures that speaking through the use of verbal and non- verbal symbols in a variety of contexts Participation, interaction and engagement: To create English Language Classroom that is full of fun and a dynamic place to be, right activities should be taught in the right way Speaking in the class can be a lot fun, raising general motivation Consequently, Sari (2011, p 2) adheres to the idea that if the students not learn how to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get bored and lose interest in learning the foreign language It has become increasingly clear that success in school is a product of learning the language Interacting through talking at home and in school is essential in bringing about oral language fluency and ultimately literacy 2.1.1.3 Elements of speaking ability Heaton(1988) divided the elements of speaking ability into three parts: Accuracy: Pronunciation maybe heavily influenced by native language but should be generally intelligible No confusing errors of grammar or vocabulary Accuracy in speaking means someone can produce correct sentences in pronunciation, grammar and word choice so can be understood There are three components accuracy: pronunciation, Vocabulary, and grammar.According to Webster Dictionary (2003)pronunciation is the way in which a word is pronounced, the spelling of words in accordance with their usual pronunciation Pronunciation teaching deals with recognition or understanding the flow of speech and production of words Fluency: The speaker may often have to search for a way to say Contribution maybe limited to one or two simple utterance According to Brown (2001) states that fluency is the ability to use a language spontaneously and confidently and without undue pauses a hesitation Fluency is an aspect that influences very much the students’ ability in speaking English The teachers have to guide the students to develop to master it to be fluent in speaking In this case, the students can speak spontaneously by using a right language or the students not use too many unnatural pauses but succeed in conveying the general meaning and fair range of expression Comprehensibility: Comprehensibility is the process of understanding of the utterances sent by the speaker done by listener Clark states that comprehensibility has two common senses In its narrow sense, it denotes the building of meaning from sounds Comprehensibility in broader sense denotes the interpretation the meaning and utilizes the speech act conveyed 2In other words, if there are two people want to make communication to each other, they have to be speaking because they have different information The activity of speaking or communication should be understood by the speaker and listener For example, a question, listener extracts the importation then tries to search the answer for it 2.1.2 Blended-learning approach 2.1.2.1 The definition of Blended-learning Blended learning has been defined as a mixture of traditional learning and onlinelearning (Williams, 2002; Osguthrope& Graham, 2003) It is also defined as the integrationof e-learning tools such as virtual learning environment with face-to-face learning (Welker&Berardino, 2006) Thus, we could say that the term 'blended learning' refersto everytime teachers mix different media (e.g print,audio, and video) with classroom interaction In the current study the blended learning refers to a combination of online andface-to-face methods in response to the learners’ needs and for the achievement ofinstructional objectives This means that multiple approaches, methods and resources toteaching or to educational processes are combined and utilized by the teacher who nowexpects the students to learn not only from the assigned web pages and communicationtools (e.g email, discussion board and chat rooms) but also from face to face lectures,tutorials, person to person discussions and seminars Figure 1: Blended- learning 2.1.2.2 The benefits of applying Blended-learning approach in teaching speaking Research suggests that when online and face-to-faceelements are combined, learners often place a greater valueor emphasis on the face-to-face aspects of the experience (Graham, 2004) But teacher–learner communication does not stop when learners leave the classroom; it continues outside the classroom environment And with the right blend, the classroom time can be used to maximum effect Firstly, Blended learning makes education more accessible With traditional teaching methods, educational materials were only available during classroom hours Students may have been able to take their textbooks home with them, but they didn’t have a way to actually interact with or engage the material With new learning apps and other technological advances, they have more flexibility to access and engage academia from home This accessibility could translate to a much greater interest in learning and more successful outcomes Secondly, Students can pace themselves Blended learning that uses apps, games, or measurable programs to teach concepts allows students to engage the material at their own pace This helps to balance a classroom that contains both quick and slow learners Every student can practice and tackle new material with timing that is perfect just for them It can promote deeper learning, reduce stress, and increase student satisfaction Last but not least, Teachers can become more engaged with their students Blended learning presents an increased opportunity for students to connect with their professors and teachers They can connect via email, through progress reports on the program, or on message boards This learning style promotes a number of effective means for teachers and students to become more engaged with one another In the end, both parties can benefit from this shift in the relationship Teachers can stay in touch with student progress, while students can ask more questions and gain deeper knowledge 2.1.2.3 Forms of Blended learning in teaching speaking Rotation Model: In this model, students rotate between learning paths or “modalities”-one of which online learning-either on a fixed schedule or at the teacher’s discretion There are several popular sub-classes of the rotation model Station Rotation: In this model, students rotate between various stations within theclassroom, and at least one of these stations includes an online learning component Lab Rotation: Students rotate between the classroom environment and the learning lab, all whilestaying on the school campus Flipped Classroom: In the flipped classroom, students rotate on a fixed schedulebetween classroom instruction during the school day and online outside of schoolhours Individual Rotation: In this rotation model, students customize how they rotatebetween modalities Either theteacher-of-record or an algorithm can set individual student rotation schedules, butonce set, these schedules usually stay fixed Flex Model:Similar to the individual rotation model, the flex model features students working on a customized schedule that rotates between modalities, one of which is online learning Although the teacher-of-record is on-site and interacts with students face toface, this support is flexible and adaptive to individual student needs This blended learningapproach also allows for creative classroom/school configurations, for example bycombining study space, breakout rooms, learning labs, small group work rooms, and socialareas “A La Carte” Model:The A la carte model-also known as the “selfblend”model-allows students to design their educational experience by selecting specific online courses to supplement their traditional in-school coursework For the online coursework component, the teacher-of-record is virtual and learning occurs either in theschool or off-site Enriched-Virtual Model:In this model, students learn primarily online, butsplit their time between the brick-and-mortar school campus and an off-site environment It is a “whole school experience,” which means that it is a comprehensiveapproach to schooling The teachers-of-record are primarily virtual, although teachers or paraprofessionalsprovide supplemental support in the brick-and-mortar environment as well 2.1.2.4 Materials for implementing blended learning Worksheets and other materials: Worksheets and other materials are available for classroom use, homework orself-study You can find specific materials for young learners, and special purposes,exam preparation, skills work Exercises and Tests: Many exercises available online and on CD-ROM focus on grammar andvocabulary Such exercises are an ideal way to practise discrete items such as contrasting two structures (e.g since and for) or confusable words Among the most common activity types are multiple choice Vocabulary Reference: Vocabulary input for learners includes specialist vocabulary for ESP areas thatare well served on the Web Learners can access functional language for situationssuch as making telephone calls or giving presentations Language Games: Games are another electronic alternative to books and paper based exercises.They are principally aimed at younger learners although there are also games whichcan be used by adults They focus on topics such as vocabulary, spelling and grammar Speaking and pronunciationinteractive materials on the Web and on CD-ROM:offer opportunities todevelop language skills like speaking and pronunciation Fluency practice is usually organized by the teacher, and is an area which Learners can read and record alternate lines in a dialogue,and then play back the complete dialogue CD-ROMs can also be helpful in the areaof pronunciation On some disks, the learner can click on a version of the phonemicchart and listen to the individual phonemes Some disks display the intonation patternthe learner uses in visual format 2.1.2.5 Source of materials in applying blended learning Downloadable Materials: In the case of downloadable materials, once you have saved the files on your computer, your link to the internet can be disconnected Material intended to be printed, such as worksheet, or materials which can be stored and distributed by email, such as (MP3) files, are normally delivered by this method Online Materials: In contrast to downloadable materials, these rely on the learners having access to a computer connected to the Internet Online exercises, test, games and listening activities often require little programs that integrate with your browser Material on Disk: Finally, some materials are available in disk format ACD-ROM is essentially a stronger device It can store digital data in formats such as text, pictures, photographs, animations, video clips and audio clips CDROMs offer language learners the exciting possibilities of a multimedia environment, allowing them to move between the various media at will There are also DVDs, the main difference being that these offer a lot more storage space 2.2.The current situation of teaching and learning speakingskill at Thi Tran secondary school 2.2.1 The school This study was conducted at Thi Tran secondary school in ThuongXuan district, ThanhHoa province In the school year 2017-2018, the school had 13 classes with more than 400 students, among which there were 112 ninth grade students divided into four classes, so there were about nearly 30 students in each class One thing worth to note here is that the level of students at Thi Tran secondary school is not very high They mostly come from rural areas where English teaching and learning has not been paid much attention to Besides, the school shares common features with classrooms elsewhere in Vietnam: large size, students sitting in rows of four each and irremovable furniture 2.2.2 The students Students under this investigation are 30 students of class 9A of Thi Tran secondary school within the second semester from the st February to the April 29, 2018 There were 18 girls and 12 boys They were the same age and had the same total years of learning English with the same curriculum from primary school to secondary school Most of them could grammar very well but they have difficulties in speaking skills, especially in one - way speaking situations where they did not have opportunities to see or interact with speakers of English Difficulties are created by the students’ limited knowledge of the language system and their lack of experience hearing fluent natural speechin target language and English speaking environment This is due to the inappropriate learning strategies in speaking, and the time limitation for teachers of English in class Each week, they had three forty - five minute English lessons and one more selective lesson Of four skills: reading, writing, speaking and speaking, they found speaking is the most challenging skill 2.2.3.The problems of teaching and learning speaking skills at the school In secondary schools in Vietnam, the textbooks are designed for all students of different grades Among them, this study stresses that using the same textbooks for all students in different regions is problematic Especially in the research school, a remote and mountainous one, English proficiency of most students cannot be as high as those from cities or towns using the same textbooks In the other hand, the failure of students in speaking may also be originated from the fact that the teaching and learning process of speaking is not conducted effectively and the inappropriate teaching method is applied by the teacher In other words, the students may find the strategies which the teachers use not interesting and effective enough to develop their speakingskill 2.3 Application In planning, the teacher prepared syllabus, lesson plan, source of online learning, blended learning strategy based on the English curriculum of the Vietnamese ministry of education and training To reach the stated goal, the action plan is executed during the second semester The project comprises two phases (12 weeks, second semester 2017-2018) The former, In-class activity which consists of selected awareness-raising activities and essential speaking-strategies training activities, is to raise students’ awareness of the problem as well as equip them with necessary skills to make use of online materials and acquire more confidence in speaking skill and then designed in-class activities for target language of each unit The latter toughens such awareness and strategies in learners by involving them in the speaking practice This stage is of great importance since only raising student’s awareness cannot ensure the raise in the autonomy level Once they are armed with necessary skills and appropriate knowledge, they are asked to choose from various types of autonomy-fostering activities and commit to the activities regularly The activities require the students to prepare at home and report their results in the next lesson Teachers ought to provide thenecessary resources to adjust these instructions to fit students’learning needs and see how students make use of this toolto learn Therefore, the creation and adaptation of materials are expected to aid the learners’self-investment and different speaking strategies such us: representing sounds in memory,recalling vocabulary, discussing your feelings with someone else and developing culturalunderstanding, within the classroom Phase In the first step, teacher embraces on-lesson-basis information-sharing and reporting tasks to encourage reflection of the use of coping strategies These activities help them to enrich the essential vocabulary, widen their knowledge and especially create more chances to practice speaking skill In an effort to keep students from putting off all work to the last moment, it is beneficial to stipulate that some product must be handed in and report in class In-class activity: At the beginning of each lesson, students have 15 minutes’ information exchanging Now that they are at an advantage of being prepared for class, they have to hand in their assignment during the informationsharing task Students exchange pairs to share the information that they have achieved without reference to the article but the summary The assignments will be given back to students the following lesson During their activity, one student tells the news, and the other must take notes They are encouraged to ask questions and use any appropriate techniques to maintain the conversation and comprehend the information given to take notes These notes must be hand posterior This note taking is to certify that they try to perceive the information from their partners, acquire equal participation, and set room for the use of compensatory techniques Furthermore, the use of these techniques is fostered by applying no-Vietnamese rule Phase In this step students make use of online materials to practice after school Out-class activity: students take at least thirty minutes a day to revise the knowledge they have learnt in the classroom with the implementing online tool on two websites : sachmem.com and tienganh123.com In the next lesson at school, they spend about ten minutes for pair work activity, the next five minutes is reserved for some pair presentations in front of the class In the consecutive three meetings, they use ten minutes for pair work activity and the next five minutes for individual report in front of the class One or two students make presentations in front of the class, reporting the news that they have just received In doing so, students will feel more secured, and gradually become accustomed to public presentations Holding the rehearsal, they will be more 10 willing to speak up The final product is a record of all assignments and notes attained during the project Besides, the assessment is also based on students’ active participation in class, especially while doing the activities By this students great efforts in using all the materials and the speaking techniques to communicate with their partners in the target language The gradual individual presentation merging helps them to gain fearlessness in speaking Hereby, they can implant not only self-directed leaning attitudes but also take appropriate psychology in the learning process Concurrently, their speaking skill is upgraded However, depend on different activities, teacher should give appropriate tasks for students in face to face lesson as well as online lesson The following are examples that I have used: Example :UNIT 7- GETTING STARTED (page 7-8) SGK English Phase 1: In-class activity - After asking students about their favourite dishes Elicit answers from students and quickly write them on the board Teacher introduce the new words on the board by different techniques Figure 2: Teaching New Words - The pronunciation of all the target words and model sentences should be demonstrated by the native speakers (In this theme of the project, teacher can download from sachmem.com or tienganh123.com) In this stage, teacher plays the role of facilitator who helps students to pronounce correctly the new words as perfect as possible comparing with the pronunciation in the tape or on web These activities help them to enrich the essential vocabulary, widen their knowledge and especially create more chances to practice speaking skill In an effort to keep students from putting off all work to the last moment, it is beneficial to stipulate that some product must be handed in and report in class 11 Figure 3: Teaching New Words - With the rest part of the lesson, it is important for the teacher to have students read the questions to make sure they understand them Ask them firstly to answer the questions without reading the dialogue again.If there is some time left, have students work in their groups and write down a similar quiz Set a time limit of about five minutes Continue the activity until all the groups have read out all of their questions or when time is up Phase 2: Out- class activities In this stage,students must be well equipped with adequate awareness of the learning process, learning strategies as well as given more empowerment in their study without assistance starvation from the teacher On sachmem.com, firstly students should review all the new words of this part with the aid of the websites https://www.sachmem.vn/books/25/exercises/6932), 12 Figure 4: Revise Vocabulary at home - Next, students have to spend at least 15 minutes for listening this part three times a week and try to model the sentences in the dialogue They can replay as many times as possible and repeat the target dialogue The color will turn yellow when the speech is pronounced.By this, students have a chance to develop not only speaking but other skills are involved Listening skills allow the person to understand what other person speaks Speaking skills helps to convey the same what he listened in the right manner Reading skills is essential to interpret what is in the text Writing skills is used to express their own thoughts After two weeks, the students gradually feel interest in learning and try to listen, record, write and practice at home Figure 5: Practice The Text Online 13 - Finally, students record the target text and send to the teacher through email or other social means like: Hangout; Skype…Feedback will be delivered by the teacher individually or in front of the class so that the students can learn from each other - During this study, students were actively receiving feedback from their classmates and teacher, as well as providing feedback to their partners during the face-to-face sessions after the virtual lessons were implemented; this definitely was effective for them Hence, students mention that blended learning allowed them to make errors and to make them up The examples above evidence how blended learning was used to helped students improve their speaking skill and, thisstep will foster students to motivate to create dialogue in part Communication The process of learning and practicing the Getting started will facilitate students to complete the speaking tasks in the Communication part of each unit Figure 6: Post-speaking (Communication- page 13) The teacher always reviewed the students’ performance and learning material in the end of the class The lecturer reviewed the students’ performance at the face to face class, in this case the lecturer gave feedback to the students about their problem during theteaching-learning process Learning material must also bereviewed by the lecturer,that the lecturer could provide the appropriate material for the students From the reflection of the students, it was known that the weaknesses were the students were not yet familiar to all online learning source informed in the group and in the class, the students less practiced because some students still asked on how to maximize online source for their self-learning It happened 14 because the teacher did not explain every single link clearly while informing in the group While interviewing several students, they said that they felt more fun by Blended Learning model but they need to be accustomed The results The implementation of Blended Learning in class 9A at Thi Tran secondary school to improve speaking skill was done in three months The teacher combined online learning and traditional face to face learning The online learning source was announced in whatsup group before face to face meeting The online learning sources are websites tienganh123.com and sachmem.vn It is proven that Blended learning can solve the students’ problem in the class like inadequate learning and practicing time, afraid of making mistakes, being shy and unconfident to practice, by seeing their average score in every period of time they had been through 2.4.1.Data from the questionnaire After finding a significant increase in learning for the experimental group, students received a questionnaire to determine the reasons for their enhanced learning In the questionnaire, the subjects were asked about their perception of e-learning’s effect on their language skills QUESTIONS MEANS SD The blended learning helps the students understand the 4.50 0.51 subject better The lessons in blended learning program are interesting 4.40 0.56 The teacher should use this program to supplement inclass teaching 4.57 0.50 Blended learning motivates the students to study by themselves 4.65 0.55 The students’ learning experience is enhanced by t Blended learning 4.43 0.50 Blended learning program develops students’ language skills 4.53 0.51 Blended learning develops students speaking skills 3.80 0.41 Table 1: Questionnaire As can be seen from Table 1, the students in the experimental group had favorable attitudes towards enhancing their language skills through blended learning Most students thought that this program should be a supplement to inclass teaching In addition, there was a favorable response relating to 15 motivational aspect delivered through the use of technology It motivated the students to study by themselves It also helped them better understand the lesson because the supplementary lessons covered similar content Moreover, students felt that this program could both facilitate and enhance their learning experience 2.4.2 The data from the interviews The students’ responses for interest and experience in blended learning are as follows First, the participants responded positively for interest in using blended learning in English speaking classes 87.1% of the participants showed interest (very interested, 25.8% and fairly interested, 61.3%), 12.9% were not particularly interested, none responded to be not interested The results show that students’ interest in blended learning in English classes is very high Thestudents seem to consider blended learning is an innovative and effective way to study English, which seemed to be the cause of their highly positive responses Second, the students’ experiences in blended learning were investigated In this study, blended learning is used to provide the online environment in blended learning where interaction between learner(s) and learner(s), learner(s) and teacher, and among learner(s), teacher, and multimedia take place The participants for this study responded negatively regarding prior experience in blended learning classes 46.8 % of the participants have been in blended learning classes before whereas 53.2% have not experienced blended learning in prior to the current study Participants who have experienced blended learning seemed to be mostly upper classmen who had more exposure to variety of university courses than freshmen and sophomores The downside is that of time constraints caused by the computers/network being down or very busy These technical difficulties may be dealt with through upgrading and maintaining of technical equipmentserver, intranet and the Internet In the event that additional spending on system upgrades is unrealistic or impossible, a self-defined blended learning environment can be established within the situational constraints 2.5 The effectiveness of implementing blended-learning approach in learning and teaching English Based on the information from the findings, the teacher found that the use of Blended-learning approach bring both students and teacher many benefits both teachers and learners perceive that e-learning can help students take responsibility for their own learning by making them autonomous and confident This enables introverted students to interact more freely, provides diversification of activities, fosters an intrinsic impetus of learning and permits the acquisition of valuable study and time management skills Moreover, Blended-learning also allows teachers to have a more studentcentered form of learning Teachers can use Blended-learning to develop EFL 16 students’ language skills and activate their independent learning The findings revealed that Blended-learning is an essential approach that should be used to supplement the EFL face-to-face classroom lessons It is seen to enhance the students’ language proficiency and promote independent learning PART III: CONCLUSION 3.1 Summary This study aims at investigating the exploitation of Blended-learning approach on enhancing students’ speaking skill The study was conducted over thirty 9th grade students and two teachers of English at Thi Tran secondary school From the findings, it appears that students have positive perceptions toward the benefits of the applying blended-learning approach in speaking lessons Their progress in speaking ability was evaluated by the comparison between before and after English speaking tests With the meaningful improvements in outcomes above, it can be concluded that using Blendedlearning approach in speaking lessons benefit students in many ways such as concentrating on speaking process, remembering information, review and recall the information easily, which led to two times higher scores in the speaking test after four months Based on the findings, some suggestions for applying online materials with traditional face to face class in teaching and learning speaking will be given for a better speaking lesson with the use of Blended-learning approach 3.2 Pedagogical suggestions Blended learning is a valuable concept that can be used to more successfully achieve teaching goals It allows students to develop and practice English language skills outside the classroom at anytime and anyplace they choose, as long as they have access to an Internet connection In addition, it permits them to repeat lessons without judgment or pressure The proven enhancement of student learning documented in this study validates this type of Blended-learning The addition of online-learning to classroom teaching provides students with opportunities for autonomous learning and a decentralized transfer of knowledge Blended learning is an approach which takes into account different learning styles and combines different learning environments in a flexible, integrated and complementary way in order to help, support and enhance learners' diverse needs and provide a successful, efficient and enjoyable learning experience Mixing different media, different modes of delivery and different instructional strategies is not a new approach, but the capabilities of today's technology can make a blended approach both easier and more meaningful for learners Blended learning puts learners at the centre of the learning process, encouraging them to be more independent, and also helps teachers in their vital role of supporting learning 17 Blended learning, appropriately conceived, developed and delivered , can support any number of learners, anywhere and anytime; it can help managers use human and other resources in the most efficient way possible to give learners the best learning experience possible It is satisfying to know that there is a growing body of evidence to support the view that blended learning can result in a better student learning experience, an improvement in learning outcomes, and greater student motivation, confidence and satisfaction, leading to learners becoming more independent learners and enjoying learning the language 3.3 Limitation of the research Although the study was conducted with the best of my effort, it still has some limitations such as number of participants of the study is limited Thus, findings of the study cannot generalize to all the students of the school In addition, due to lack of time and limitation of knowledge, the author has not considered all aspects of the issue, and mistakes of the study are unavoidable The author would like to receive comments from the other teachers and those who concern this issue for further studies with sincere gratitude Suggestion for further studies This study is only investigating the application of note-taking Blended learning in teaching and learning speaking skill Further studies should be devoted to evaluate the application of Blended learning strategies on teaching and learning other skills like reading, speaking or writing REFERENCES Dawley, L (2007) The tools for successful online teaching, London: Information Science Publishing Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and researching motivation, Harlow: Longman Aug 2014] H D (2007) Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy Third edition White Plains, NewYork: Pearson Education Graham, C R (2006) Blended learning systems: definition, current trends, and future directions, C J Bonk and C R Graham, The handbook of blended learning: Global perspectives, San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer Publishing Key, M R (1981) The relationship of verbal and nonverbal communication XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thường Xuân, ngày tháng năm 2019 Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác (Ký ghi rõ họ tên) Nguyễn Thị Phương 18 19 ... to enhance 9th grade students’ speaking skills at Thi Tran secondary school Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to improving speaking skills for grade 9th students at Thi Tran. .. that these offer a lot more storage space 2.2.The current situation of teaching and learning speakingskill at Thi Tran secondary school 2.2.1 The school This study was conducted at Thi Tran secondary. .. said that they felt more fun by Blended Learning model but they need to be accustomed The results The implementation of Blended Learning in class 9A at Thi Tran secondary school to improve speaking