Literature review, supplies some theoretical background for the study it includes some aspects related to speaking skills, information gap

Second, we must elevate the student's awareness and introduce them tothe great importance that speaking skill has in developing their language proficiency.The purpose of this work was, t

First and foremost, I would like to give special thanks to Ms Tran Thi Thu Hienfor her insightful comments during the proposal, development, and editing stages ofthis field project

Second, my sincere thanks also go to American Links English centre for creatingfavorable conditions for me to complete this study I had chance to access the workingenvironment in order to collect data for my research

Finally, I would like to thank everybody who supported and helped me when Ineed and I hope that I can receive feedback from all the people to complete theassignment with the best standard

Speaking English is doubtlessly essential nowadays since it is a globallyrecognized language in almost all fields Thus, if we want learners to be fluent andgood at speaking we first should encourage them to practice with an eye towardsimprovement Second, we must elevate the student's awareness and introduce them tothe great importance that speaking skill has in developing their language proficiency.The purpose of this work was, then, to explore the effectiveness of using speakingcommunicative activities to improve English speaking skill The main threefoldobjectives of the work are identifying the most effective communicative activitieswhich can promote learners’ speaking skill, discussing the main problems which mayhinder the oral performance, providing strategies to help learners overcome theirdifficulties and investigating learner's attitudes towards those activities The studyresearch was conducted at American Links English centre, relying on surveyquestionnaires and interviews as instruments of the research The analysis of resultsreveals that students are more aware and mindful about the importance of speakingactivities in improving their oral proficiency From and other perspective, teachersagreed that using communicative activities is one of the most effective and beneficialtools to reinforce students' speaking Finally, this extended essay ends up by providingsome fruitful and efficient teaching suggestions for learners to flourish and evolve intheir learning process

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 1

1.3 Aims of the study 7

1.4 Research subjects 7

1.4.1 Participants 7

1.4.2 Instruments 7

1.5 Scope of the study 8

1.6 Research methodology 8

1.7 Organization of the study 9

CHAPTER 2: LITERARURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Definition of speaking skill 10

2.2 The roles of speaking skill in a language 11

2.3 Difficulties in teaching speaking English skill 11

2.4 Methods of teaching speaking English skill 12

2.5 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill 14

2.5.1 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill during pre stage 14

2.5.2 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill during while stage 15

2.5.3 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill during post stage 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 19

3.1 The research hypothesis 19

3.2 Procedure of data collection 19

3.3 Results and discussion 20

3.3.1 Reality of speaking English of learners at American Links English centre 20

3.3.2 Challenges that both teachers and learners encountered 25

3.3.3 Some suggested solutions to solve these problems 26

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 29

4.1 Implications 29

4.2 Suggestions for further studies 30

CONCLUSION 31

REFERENCES 34

APPENDICES 37

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 CLT Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Methods of teaching speaking English for learners at American Links English

centre 21

Table 3 : Challenges that teachers faced with when teaching speaking English 25

Table 4 : Difficulties encountered by students when speaking English 25

Table 5: The suggested teaching methods that teachers applied to improve the speaking English skill 26

Table 6: Recommendation of teachers for students to enhance their speaking English 27

Table 6: The levels of agreement of methods to improve the students’ speaking English skill 28

Chart 1: Kinds of speaking forms that teachers used in the classes 20

Chart 2: The number of hours students spend on speaking English everyday 22

Chart 3: The levels of importance of speaking English by discussion 23

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

Over the past few decades, English is often qualified to be the "GlobalLanguage" English became a dominant language by virtue of reaching the power ofbeing spread widely It is also established as a lingua franca, that is the commonlanguage consistently used as a bridge in communication between people who do notshare the same language According to Karahan (2007 :1) when describing Englishlanguage… leading foreign language enjoying a prestigious position in manycountries, including Spanish speaking countries, since the end of World War II It isneither a national nor an official language in Latin America but it is the most widelytaught foreign language at all stages of educational system In this respect, the mastery

of speaking skill has become increasingly important due to its preeminent rank ininternational communication

Consequently, learning process requires a great emphasis on teaching thespeaking skill since English is considered a global language and used for interpersonalcommunication

Within this context, it is the desire of many learners to be fluent and to evolvetheir speaking skill in spite of the difficulties which impede a free communication As

a matter of fact, it is necessary for teachers to help their students promote their skillthrough identifying the hinders during oral production and eventually suggest some ofthe effective communicative activities and strategies for genuine communication tooccur in the language classroom This can widely increase student's motivation andawareness to tackle oral problems

1.2 Previous studies

Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) appeared in the1960s and 1970s and was thought as a resolution against the Audio- lingual Method Itwas an outcome of more attention to learners’ effective and appropriate use oflanguage learnt It was pointed out by Brindley (1986: 11) that “The 1970’s and1980’s could be regarded as the era of Communicative Language Teaching”.Communicative Language Teaching also marked the beginning of a major innovation

within language teaching because of its superior principles which are widely acceptednowadays So far, several researchers have done the work on CLT and differentauthors view CLT differently However, it was difficult to define it in a satisfactoryway There were a variety of definitions about CLT and each of them developed her /his own ideas regarding CLT As for Nunan (1989: 194), Communicative LanguageTeaching means: CLT viewed language as a system for the expression of meaning.Activities involved oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and usinglanguage, which were meaningful to the learners Objectives reflected the needs of thelearners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives.The learner’srole was as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role was as a facilitator of thecommunication process Materials promoted communicative language use; they weretask- based and authentic It was thought that the definition contained aspects that werecommon to many other definitions The definition above, as with any definitions of thelanguage teaching method ( Penny Cook, 1989), represented a particular view ofunderstanding and explaining language acquisition It was socially constructed andmust be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces.Negotiation of meaning between students and teachers should be essential in theimplementation of tasks with resulting comprehensible input Risk talking whichleaded to successful communication is also very important In his viewpoint, Williamsemphasized the lack of focus on the direct instruction of language rules and errorcorrection A major emphasis was on learner autonomy According to Bock (2000)CLT was tailored to get at meaning and leaners negotiate meaning in class Meaningwas considered as what is communicated The negotiation of meaning could beimplicated through pair work, group work in problem- solving tasks He also stated:

“Authentic materials, functional tasks, and groups and pair work are significantaspects of CLT” Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching The theory oflanguage in CLT showed that language was used as a means of communication.Characteristics of CLT were given by Richards and Rodgers( 2001) as follows:Language was a system for the expression of meaning The primary function oflanguage was to allow interaction and communication The structure of languagereflected its functional and communicative uses The primary units of language were

not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional andcommunicative meaning as exemplified in discourse Thus, the objective of languageteaching was to develop “communicative competence” Richards and Rodgers (2001 :155) showed that CLT aimed to “ make communicative competence the goal oflanguage teaching” And communicative competence was defined by Hymes( 1972 :7): “ Communicative competence as speaker needs to know to communicateeffectively in culturally significant setting.” Another characteristic of CLT was theintroduction of authentic material (Dublin, 1995; Larsen- Freeman, 1986; Long andCrooks, 1992; Nunan, 1990; Widdwson, 1996) In CLT, it was considered desirable togive learners the opportunity to response to genuine communicative needed in realisticL2 situations so that they developed strategies for understanding language as actuallyused by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980) The Teachers’ and Students’ roles

in Communicative Language Teaching Teacher roles: As Communicative LanguageTeaching is learner- centered, the teachers, though, were still the people to set upactivities and give instructions to students, they stepped back to listen and monitor theclass rather than talking much Chaudhry Zahid Javid, Muhammad Umar Farooq,

Malik Ajmal Gulzar (2012) in their study Saudi English-Major Undergraduates and

English Teachers ' Perceptions Regarding Effective ELT in the KSA: a Comparative Study concluded that: “a Classrooms should be more interactive b Classrooms need

to be equipped with modern teaching resources c Students' English languageproficiency was poor when we joined Taif University d The students had to pass anEnglish language proficiency test to qualify for the next academic year e Thedepartment should start remedial courses for the weaker students.” Qashoa S H H

(2006) revealed in his study Motivation among Learners of English in the Secondary

Schools in the Eastern Coast of the UAE, that :“Second and foreign language learners

should be offered the opportunity to be motivated and fulfill their learningorientations.” He also revealed that: “The UAE students have a higher degree ofinstrumentality than integrativeness Contrary to the findings of other related studies,difficulties with the subject (English) aspects such as vocabulary, structures and

spelling were found to be in the first place in terms of demotivating factors.”

Zeinab Moradi Khazaei, Ahmad Moinzadeh & Saeed Ketabi (2012) in their study

Willingness to Communicate in Iranian Learners: The Effect of Class Size indicated

that “Class size had a substantial effect on the students’ willingness to communicate.Students were found to be more willing to communicate in small classes where theyhad more opportunity to practice oral skills and communicate

From the welcoming of “open door” policy during the 1980s’s EconomicRenovation stages to the becoming an official member of the TPP in 2016, Vietnamhas been being experienced the deeper and wider international integration In response

to the developmental process, the increasing competition between knowledge-basedeconomies has a requirement of basic skills to human resources The introduction offoreign languages into one of the advantages of human resources is crucial for thesuccess of the integration process

Following the perspective outlined in the guidance of the Party CentralCommittee's Resolution 8 Conference XI of radical innovation, comprehensiveeducation and training: "To be self-motivated and active in the internationalintegration for the development of education and training, simultaneously educationand training need to be met the requirements of international integration for thedevelopment of country", Vietnamese educational managers have been planningand implementing new advances in teaching and learning foreign languages (FL) ofall levels, focusing on from primary to higher education level, and even invocational schools and training level Although there has been some initiallyachievements, the overall of FL education has not yet reached objectivelysignificant results In order to enhance the FL ability of Vietnamese student, theMinistry of Education and Training (MOET) issued National Foreign LanguagesProject scheme for the 2008-2020 periods as a comprehensive solution for theEnglish language teaching and learning in Viet Nam

Nevertheless, on November 16, 2016, Mr Phung Xuan Nha - Minister of

Education and Training announced that “the government had failed to meet the goals

of the NFL scheme for the 2008-2020 periods”(VBN, 2016) However, there is no

debate on why the project could not be completed within the defined period Thispaper is aimed at discussing how it has failed by analysing the Vietnam national high

school graduation examination results from Ho Chi Minh City’s high schools as a casestudy In addition, it incorporates findings from an observation of three (3) Englishclasses in Đao Son Tay High School that was conducted to provide first-hand evidencefor this discussion It should be noted that NFL 2020 for high school level is beyondthe discussion mentioned in this paper

In order to enhance English language teaching and learning in Vietnam in allschool level, Prime Minister has announced Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTg “Teachingand Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, Period 2008

to 2020”

The general goal of this project is that “by the year 2020 most Vietnamese youth

whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity

to use a foreign language independently This will enable them to be more confident in communication, further their chance to study and work in an integrated and multi- cultural environment with variety of languages This goal also makes language as an advantage for Vietnamese people, serving the cause of industrialization and modernization for the country” (MOET, 2008).

Nguyen (2015) mentioned in his paper that in order to facilitate theimplementation of project, especially in measuring and assessing FL proficiencyfocusing on both users: teachers and students, Common European Framework ofReference (CEFR) and a Language Proficiency Framework are adopted as supporttools All educational managers hope that CEFR will direct appropriate curriculums,practices in learning and teaching, and evaluations With a remarkable materialresource as well as the widely usage in Europe education systems, CEFR is believed toget credibility in the case of Vietnam

The project has a total budget of 9,400 billion, of which 2008-2010 is 1,000billion; the period of 2011-2015 is nearly 4,400 billion, the period of 2016-2020 isaround 4,000 billion (MOET, 2008) After 9 years with trillions of dong, the expectedachievements have not been reached because of too many shortcomings In fact, at theconference on the implementation of project in the period of 2016-2020 held on 17/9

by MOET, the new phase of plan do not refer to the achievements as well aslimitations in the period of 2008-2015 (PhapluatVietnamnews, 2016)

In contrast to discussions above, “Teacher language ability is not as crucial assome authorities seem to think it is” (Ball, Kelly, & Clegg, 2015) In fact, no matterhow skillful teacher language ability is, learners with low L2 ability could notunderstand them Therefore, even if teachers have high English proficiency andprofound knowledge, they still need to adjust to new pedagogical approaches in thisproject Before the announcement of NFL 2020 project, English teaching method isalways one way in which teachers introduce lessons and students take notes, and theyonly focus on gramma without practicing Additionally, according to Mr Vu Van Tra -Director of Hai Phong Department of Education, at present, learning English stillattaches special importance to reading and writing skills so as to cope withexaminations, rather than in practical applications (Vnexpress, 2016b) Clearly, thepedagogical approaches in practice are not sufficient to exploit the potential of theproject If teachers’ teaching methods are changed, students might achieveperformance objectives proposed in the scheme Teaching English in high schoolsshould be based on the application of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) inline with local conditions and psychophysiological characteristics of the student whichforwarding from adolescence to the adulthood Since then, the objective of teachingand learning is to develop the understanding and communication ability in English ofstudents in different real life situations In order to achieve this goal, teachers shouldbuild actively and diversified pedagogical approaches which orientate the studyprocess of students For example, teachers need to adjust their language so thatstudents can understand the lectures by modifying talking speed, using synonyms orantonyms, taking some pauses, using various question types, strategies for scaffolding,checking and giving feedback Unfortunately, they do not recognize themethodological changes or they have not experienced these approaches due to settingsome objectives of the scheme too high in comparison with teachers’ ability or lackinglanguage ability of teachers (Vnexpress, 2016a).

In brief, besides improving language competence, it is necessary to enableteachers to recognize the change of their pedagogical methods Teachers themselves,thus, can further modify their teaching approaches in order to ensure the effectiveness

of project in practice

1.3 Aims of the study

The need for effective strategies and activities for the sake of reinforcing thespeaking skill of learners is the main concern of all teachers at American links Englishcentre Enhancing learners’ speaking skill is not an easy task for many teachers at all.This need leads teachers to use differences strategies and activities This first chapter isdevoted to the literature review and deals with the theoretical part of this work Severalbasic concepts and definitions which are related to the work are provided This chapteraims at presenting the nature of speaking skill and the main goals of teaching it.Moreover it sheds light on the factors that cause speaking difficulties to learners.Finally, it attempts to reveal some of the strategies and activities which may tackle theproblems of learners in speaking skill

of the list of interviewing in order to check to how English speaking skill was carriedout in the classroom The second stage was the distributing of questionnaires whichwas designed to identify the problems of speaking English and the difficultiesexperienced by students during the speaking class

1.4.2 Instruments

The figures were collected through the use of questionnaires and interview

questions They were addressed to both students and teachers at American Links Englishcentre to collect data for a deep investigation and from a great source of insight

Firstly, the questionnaire is a common tool used by researchers which providesdata, being the easiest one because it doesn’t require too much time or energy to bedone It is a collection of numerous questions which can be close, open and multiplechoice questions According to Nunan (1992:231) a questionnaire is an instrument forthe collection of data, usually in written form consisting of open or closed questions

and other probes requiring a response from the subject” Thus, it allows the researchers

to collect the information concisely and precisely, and some cannot be observed

Apart from this experience, I decided to make further research on teachingspeaking So to see how speaking was taught in the classrooms of the centre I planned

to make short interviews because I wanted to talk with the teachers and knew theirdifferent perspectives Since my key concern was to examine whether the method ofteaching speaking was suitable or not, my priority was the teachers and not thestudents During my experience, I planned to find out ten well known English teachersfrom the centre and talk to them about how they conducted their speaking classes Igave them the interview questions All of them gave their own opinions and Irecorded Later, I concised their answers which helped me prepare the statisticalanalysis Another reason of choosing interview was that it allowed more elaboratedconversation about the issue As they were interviews, I could also add their commentsrelated with the main answers Interviews were actually the best way to collectqualitative data because people felt comfortable sharing their ownproblems/limitations of teaching which they might not want to write down Moreover,

as it was an interview survey, I had the opportunity for other related enquiries Thisalso saved a lot of time which could have needed to answer any set of questionnaires

in written form

1.5 Scope of the study

To enhance speaking skills for learners, there are a wide range of methods thatteachers can apply in oral activities in class Moreover, the purpose of studyingEnglish of learners at American links English centre was to be able to speak Englishfluently and perfectly Therefore, this study tended to explore the teaching methods toimprove English speaking skills in an effective way Also, due to the time constraints,this research only involved a small number of teachers, and learners at AmericanLinks English centre

1.6 Research methodology

The main methods of the study were quantitative (survey questionnaires) andqualitative (interview questions), in which two types of questionnaire were designedand distributed to the learners and the teachers Moreover, in order to evaluate the

effectiveness of this approach, the researcher collected some information based on

interviews to make sure that the data was more accurate and reliable A combination of

different methods above would provide reliable data, based on which the suggestionswould be made in the next parts

1.7 Organization of the study

The study consists of four chapters as follows:

Chapter I, Overview of the study , deals with the rationale, previous study, aims,research questions, scope and research methodology

Chapter II, Literature Review, supplies some theoretical background for thestudy It includes some aspects related to speaking skills, information gap activities.Chapter III, Research findings, aims to describe the methodology underlying thestudy, including the background information of the context where the study isconducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures ofdata collection Furthermore, a detailed description of data analysis is presented Chapter IV, Recommendations and suggestions, gives a summary and arecommendation for further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERARURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of speaking skill

There are a variety of definitions for the term “speaking” presented by differentauthors However, most of them agree that speaking is a verbal exchange betweencommunicators including receptive and productive skills which require them totransfer information through language

According to Murphy (1991), “Oral communication is a complex and multifacetedlanguage process”(p.51) Speaking can be learned into two basic ways: accuracy andfluency In 1995, Gower, Phillips and Walters explained that Accuracy would mean thecorrect use of vocabulary, grammar etc in case of controlled and guided activities whilefluency would mean the ability to get the message across regardless grammaticalmistakes (p 100) As Gower et al (1995) advised, the students should not be correctedduring their speaking since the natural use of incomplete sentences, commonexpressions, use of filters, hesitations etc might be hampered (p 100)

Byrne (1976, p.8) claims that speaking is “a two-way process between speakerand listener, involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill ofunderstanding” While the speaker encodes the message in appropriate language, thelistener has to decode it

Sharing the same view, Scott (p.3, cited in Johnson & Morrow, 1981) states thatspeaking is “an activity involving two (or more) people in which the participants areboth hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make theircontributions at high speed” Through the interaction, each participant will achieve hiscommunicative goals and fulfill his ability of interpreting what is said to him

According to Chastain (1998, pp 330-358), speaking is a productive skill and itinvolves many components Speaking is more than making the right sounds, choosingthe right words or getting the constructions

In short, speaking skill can be considered as the ability to use language as ameans of communication A person who has a highest level of speaking skill is the onewho can speak fluently, accurately and understandably every time, everywhere and inevery situation That is what every learner wants to master This is the reason why

Bygate (1987:2) considers speaking as “a skill which deserves attention every bit asmuch as literary skills in both first and second language”

2.2 The roles of speaking skill in a language

English speaking skill is important for students It requires developmentalongside with other language skills so that students can use speaking in studying andcommunicating Students should be assessed in speaking using a performanceinstrument that provides students a chance to demonstrate their ability to participate in

a conversation Assessment activities should be authentic and exist in real life(Bachman and Palmer, 2010) Analytic rating scale should be used for scoring toincrease the reliability of the assessment, which can provide clear information withbenefits to teaching and learning development

2.3 Difficulties in teaching speaking English skill

Speaking skill is considered one of the most difficult skills which students need

to acquire Therefore, in the process of learning and teaching this skill, some practicalproblems are unavoidable Ur (1996: 121) mentions four problems that teachers mayencounter in their teaching speaking skills:

- Inhibition: There are some reasons that lead to students‟ inhibition in class.They may include their worry about making mistakes, a fear of criticism or losing face

or the shyness of the attention that their speech attracts

- Nothing to say: Many students often claim that they cannot think of anything

to say even when they are not inhibited It means that they have no motive to expressthemselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

- Low or even participation: In group work, only one participant can talk at atime so that he or she can be heard This situation leads to the fact that in a largegroup, some learners tend to dominate while others speak very little or not at all

- Mother-tongue use: In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share thesame mother-tongue, they may tend to speak to one another in a foreign language, andbecause they feel less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother-tongue Therefore,when students are working in small groups, it is difficult for teachers to get someclasses; especially the less disciplined or motivated one to keep the target language

2.4 Methods of teaching speaking English skill

Approaches often help learners to avoid the failure in the oral communicationand psychological aspects that obstacle their speaking performance Hughes (2002)defines this term as the ability of the learners to manipulate a conversation in aneffective way

Selinker (1972) proposes the concept of “communication strategies” (CSs), which

he defines as a by-product of a learner’s attempt to express meaning in spontaneousspeech through a limited target language system Since he first used the term, it has beenthe subject of much discussion but also of little consensus as to its correct definition.Earlier, language learners employed CSs to compensate for their linguistic shortcomings

in order to achieve a particular communicative goal since it was regarded as languagelearners’ problem-solving behavior in learning foreign language Most literature on CSsincarnates similar and overlapping taxonomies, which may be divided into avoidance orreduction strategies and achievement or compensatory ones (e.g Tarone, 1980; Faerch

& Kasper, 1983; Dornyei & Scott, 1997)

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency Learnersshould be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to thefullest They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation,grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in eachcommunication situation

To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors canuse a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, andcommunicative output

Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading

passages, and the language heard and read outside of class It gives learners thematerial they need to begin producing language themselves

Language input may be content oriented or form oriented

Content-oriented input focuses on information, whether it is a simple weather

report or an extended lecture on an academic topic Content-oriented input may alsoinclude descriptions of learning strategies and examples of their use

Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance from the

teacher or another source on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (linguisticcompetence); appropriate things to say in specific contexts (discourse competence);expectations for rate of speech, pause length, turn-taking, and other social aspects oflanguage use (sociolinguistic competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to use toask for clarification and repair miscommunication (strategic competence)

In the presentation part of a lesson, a teacher combines content-oriented andform- oriented input The amount of input that is actually provided in the targetlanguage depends on students' listening proficiency and also on the situation Forstudents at lower levels, or in situations where a quick explanation on a grammar topic

is needed, an explanation in English may be more appropriate than one in the targetlanguage

Structured output focuses on correct form In structured output, students may

have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form

or structure that the teacher has just introduced

Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific

language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learneditems Instructors often use structured output exercises as a transition between thepresentation stage and the practice stage of a lesson plan textbook exercises also oftenmake good structured output practice activities

In communicative output, the learners' main purpose is to complete a task, such

as obtaining information, developing a travel plan, or creating a video To completethe task, they may use the language that the instructor has just presented, but they alsomay draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that theyknow In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether thelearner gets the message across Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of itinterferes with the message

In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is somesort of information gap between the participants Communicative output activitiesinvolve a similar real information gap In order to complete the task, students must

reduce or eliminate the information gap In these activities, language is a tool, not anend in itself

In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities fromthese different categories of input and output Learners at all proficiency levels,including beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also morelikely to result in effective language learning

This chapter is devoted to the practical part of this research work It focuses onthe data collection and analysis It is the study about teaching methods which areimproving the speaking skill for learners at American Links English centre It consists

of two questionnaires to investigate this study This chapter sheds light on all of theconclusions and main results after describing the research instruments, the informant'sprofiles and data analysis methods

2.5 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill

According to Brown (2009), a perfect teaching speaking leson has to follow threefollowing stages The speaking process includes activities that occur prior to, during,and after the actual speaking event For example, before speaking, the speaker mightdetermine the actual content of the message, how it should be presented, and what kind

of audience will be hearing the message While speaking, the speaker must attend tosuch things as presenting a clear message, tone of voice, suitable vocabulary, possibleresponses, the environment, and nonverbal gestures, Following speaking, the speakermight accept comments, answer questions, explain concepts not understood, andassess the process

2.5.1 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill during pre stage

Pre-speaking begins before students actually speak Students' experiences,observations, and interactions inside and outside of the classroom have an impact uponwhat they say and how they say it Pre-speaking activities involve thought andreflection, and provide opportunities for students to plan and organize for speaking.Some purposes for pre-speaking are that students generate and explore ideas forspeaking topics through activities Profile course offers a number of pre speakingactivities such as constructing thought webs and graphic organizer, reading something

relevant to the topic, listening to a speaker, jotting down ideas reflecting upon personalexperience and reviewing vocabulary necessary for the topic.

2.5.2 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill during while stage

The purpose of real communication is to accomplish a task, such as conveying atelephone message, obtaining information, or expressing an opinion Authenticcommunication involves an information gap; each participant has information that theother does not have In addition, to achieve their purpose, participants may have toclarify their meaning or ask for confirmation of their own understanding To createclassroom speaking activities that will develop communicative competence, instructorsneed to incorporate a purpose and an information gap and allow for multiple forms ofexpression Instructors need to combine structured output activities, which allow forerror correction and increased accuracy, with communicative output activities that givestudents opportunities to practice language use more freely

Structured output activities

Two common kinds of structured output activities are information gap activities

In these types of activities, students complete a task by obtaining missing information,

a feature the activities have in common with real communication The followinginformation gap activity can be found in Profile course Student A is an executivemanager for a multinational household product company Student B has to find out theinformation to complete the table about type of business, places where the companyexports, how the company began exporting, about domestic and overseas sales.Another useful activity of this kind is when student B has asked you to meet someone

at the airpoft Some of information is wrong, so student A needs to call student B tocheck whom he needs to meet, flight number, arrival time, which terminal, where tomeet, what he will be wearing

Next, one of the most versatile techniques for the presentation and practice ofphonological, lexical and grammatical items is the dialogue It has the fUrtheradvantages that a dialogue is by its very nature language interaction between people,which fulfils the communicative criterion At an early stage, guided dialogues mayhave words blanked out, or whole phrases when they are highly predictable from the

context At higher levels, even complete responses by one of the parties may beomitted.

Profile uses a dialogue at the most elementary level as in the followingextract two students take in turns to be A and B and make a dialogue according to thegiven pattern

A- call B

B -answer the phone

A-say who you are Ask to speak to C

B-C is not there Ask if A has a message

A -you can call later

More importantly, as the pre-speaking activity students were introduced totelephoning expressions which are used by the person calling and ones used by theperson receiving the call such as: Could I speak to, I'm calling about, Would you like

to leave a message, Hold the line ,please

Communicative Output Activities

Communicative output activities allow students to practice using all of thelanguage they know in situations that resemble real settings In these activities,students must work together to develop a plan, resolve a problem, or complete a task.The most common types of communicative output activity are role plays anddiscussions

In role plays, students are assigned roles and put into situations that they mayeventually encounter outside the classroom Because role plays imitate life, the range

of language functions that may be used expands considerably Also, the rolerelationships call for them to practice and develop their sociolinguistic competence.They have to use language that is appropriate to the situation and to the characters.Students usually find role playing enjoyable, but students who lack self-confidence or have lower proficiency levels may find them intimidating at first As inthe case of the dialogue, role-playing is a flexible technique which can be used in amuch more structured and predictable way at the controlled stage or with less guidance

at a later stage continued practice is turning into active production The next role playfrom Profile is amazing They work in group as members of quality control team

Students take the roles of team leader, inspector, coordinator, idea person and hold themeeting to discuss the problem with breakages and losses Moreover, students areprepared for role -playing carefülly The activity is introduced by describing thesituation so that the students understand what the goal of the role play should be Eachstudent is given a fact file that describes the role to be played Before students start therole play, they brainstorm to predict what vocabulary, grammar, and idiomaticexpressions they might use.

Discussions, like role plays, succeed when students are prepared first Profilegives students the input, both topical information and language forms, so that they willhave something to say and the language with which to say it For example, beforestudents have a discussion on the topic "In the long term, globalization will benefiteveryone' they brainstorm arguments they can use to put the case as well as the phrasesthey will use to present their arguments

Group talk is a generally active tool, but particularly so at the stage of freerproduction since there must be automatically less teacher control and more pupil-centredness in any work done in groups Most of the suggested techniques in this andprevious sections can be prepared in groups first of all and then brought back to theclass as a whole Students were very much in favor of the group talk when they wereasked to design a set of rules for a company They had to think about rules for:salaries, working hours, holiday entitlement, sickness, benefits, using telephone andthe Internet, dress codes Before the group talk student revise forms which are used forexpressing obligation and necessity and try to use them in their group talk

Most presentations are given for one of five reasons: to entertain, införm, inspire,convince, or persuade Once the purpose is determined, a talk should be organizedaround three main parts:

Introduction- which entices people to listen and previews what is to come

Body- is the subject and should be simple and easy to understand The speakershould stick to three—no more than four—main points, relying on facts, figures,illustrations, specific examples, and comparisons to support these main points

Conclusion- is the final section which should highlight key points that theaudience should remember The content of the message should be structured in an

orderly and logical manner This makes it easier for people to follow, digest, and retainthe information.

To practice the previously mentioned theory Profile offers following speakingactivity Students work in group of three and each of them gives the different stage ofthe presentation They are management consultants who have carried out a study for acompany which makes quality coffee makers and whose sales have fallendramatically Equally important, students have to make presentation based on thegraphs and diagrams

All in all, through well-prepared communicative output activities such as roleplays and discussions, presentations students are encouraged to experiment andinnovate with the language, and create a supportive atmosphere that allows them tomake mistakes without fear of embarrassment This will contribute to their self-confidence as speakers and to their motivation to learn more

2.5.3 Strategies of teaching English speaking skill during post stage

ollowing speaking experiences, both formal and informal, it is important to havestudents reflect upon their performance because students who have opportunities toreflect upon their speaking experience grow in their abilities to speak efTectively.Additionally, post-speaking activities serve to set goals for improvement Whenstudents reflect upon their performance, they begin to recognize what they have donewell and where they require improvement

In discussing or developing criteria for assessing a variety of speakingexperiences, both teachers and peers may be invited to comment Peers maycomment through a structure similar to a writing conference and may give oralfeedback, written feedback, or a combination of the two Conferences may beguided by specific questions determined by the teacher or may take the form ofconversation between peers