Ứng dụng các bài tập giải quyết vấn đề nhằm giúp nâng cao kỹ năng nói cho học sinh lớp 12

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN TUYET ANH USING PROBLEM SOLVING TASKS TO IMPROVE GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS (Ứng dụng tập giải vấn đề nhằm giúp nâng cao kỹ nói cho học sinh lớp 12) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2019 i THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN TUYET ANH USING PROBLEM SOLVING TASKS TO IMPROVE GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS (Ứng dụng tập giải vấn đề nhằm giúp nâng cao kỹ nói cho học sinh lớp 12) M.A THESIS M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thanh Long THAI NGUYEN – 2019 i DECLARATION ***** -I certify that the thesis entitled “Using problem-solving tasks to improve grade 12 students’ English-speaking skills” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Foreign Language Faculty, Thai Nguyen University Thai Nguyen, July 15, 2019 Nguyen Tuyet Anh Approved by SUPERVISOR Dr Nguyen Thanh Long ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have implemented if I did not have a great support and assistance of many people Therefore, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of them First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks and gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nguyen Thanh Long for his patience, kindly support and useful advices during the time I conducted my research But for his precious comments and instructions, the thesis could not have done effectively Secondly, I received tremendous support from my school – Hon Gai High School I would like to give many thanks to the students who directly engaged in the lessons throughout the process of data collection Their enthusiasm and serious contribution made the process of data collection effective and reliable I also acknowledge my thankfulness to my headmaster who helped facilitate my research conducted smoothly I would also like to state my thanks to the colleagues for their engagement in the interviews Another special thank goes to teachers of English Department, School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University Without their advices and encouragement, I would not have been able to pursuit my research My endless thanks approve to my parents, especially my mother, for their time, encouragement and support me on my way of study My mother did not only helped me to take care of my baby and me but she also worried about each step of my completion of the study Another gratitude sends to my little daughter who was born at time of my Master study Despite the difficulty, her appearance motivates me a lot Finally, I am grateful to my classmates for their spiritual support and encouragement They encouraged me through my rough time Without their support, my thesis could not have been completed ABSTRACT English speaking skills have received more and more concern as these skills make a great contribution to students’ communication skills The study aims at measuring the effectiveness of using problem-solving tasks to help students of grade 12 improve their speaking skills The study was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative approaches 44 students of grade 12 from Hon Gai High School were the participants of the study Students were taught speaking skills with a practice session using problem-solving tasks The researchers used Pre-Test, Post-Test, Observation Sheet, Interviews as the tools to find out the answers The results of the thesis showed that problem-solving tasks influenced positively on students’ speaking ability, made them feel more confident to speak and can speak more fluently At the same time, the problem-solving tasks motivated students to speak as well as overcome their fear of speaking in front of the class In the light of the results, it is recommended that teachers should use problem-solving tasks to improve students’ speaking skills TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .ii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Research topic area The study context Focus of the study Rationale of the study Structure of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Problem-solving tasks 1.1.1 Problem-solving 1.1.2 Problem – solving tasks 1.2 Speaking skills 1.3 Language Learning Motivation 1.4 Problem-solving tasks in teaching speaking skills 1.3.1 The relationship between problem-solving tasks and speaking skills 1.3.2 The steps to apply Problem – Solving Tasks into teaching English-speaking process CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 11 2.1 Field site and participants 12 2.2 Data collection methods 12 2.2.1 Classroom observation 13 2.2.2 Interviews 15 2.2.3 Speaking Tests 16 2.3 Data analysis methods 17 2.4 Ethical considerations and data reliability 18 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19 3.1 Students’ motivation on learning English by engaging in problemsolving speaking tasks 19 3.1.1 Learner’s motivation and autonomy 19 3.1.2 Learner’s motivation and confidence 20 3.1.3 Learner’s motivation and positive peer interaction 21 3.2 The positive effects of problem-solving tasks on student’s speaking skills 22 PART C: CONCLUSION 29 Summary of the key findings 29 Pedagogical implications of the study 30 Limitations of the study 31 Recommendations 31 REFERENCES 33 APPENDICES 36 The test results 38 Abbreviations PST: CEFR: EFL: s: L2: SDT: Problem-solving tasks The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages English as Foreign Language seconds Language learning Self-determination theory vii viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Observation details Table 2: Problem-solving tasks Table 3: Classroom Observation sheet Table 4: Interviews Table 5: Criteria for assessing students’ speaking skills Table 6: The longest pausing time Table 7: Result of the Students’ Speaking Pre-test and Post-test Scores Table 8: Paired Samples Statistics Table 9: Paired Samples Correlations Table 10: Paired Samples Test Table 11: The longest time of the participants’ speaking Table 12: Students’ using Vietnamese viii (Ext #9) When finding the solution for the tasks, I gained the advantage of problem-solving tasks from my friends’ ideas, ways of using language, ways of speaking Because the tasks were used in speaking activities, our speaking skills could be improved a lot (Interview with Son) The third is from the observation sheets The observation sheets show that students could use their language fluently to communicate effortlessly The observations also indicate the progress of the students after the intervention of the tasks I can see that students engaged well in the problem-solving tasks They fully participated in the tasks and enjoyed themselves in the interpersonal interactions with their friends According to the observation sheets, there are a number of factors that indicate the improvement of students’ speaking skills after the experiment of problem-solving technique, including the period of time students use English to complete the tasks, the usage of their mother tongue (Vietnamese) while dealing with the problems, their ways of choosing the language and sentences to express their ideas through the measurement of complex sentences and simple sentences The table below shows the findings: Table 11: The longest time of the participants’ speaking G ro O bs O bs O bs O bs Observer’s reflections G G G G G G G 4 0s 5s 2s 5s 6s 2s 8s 5s 3s 8s 8s 6s 4s 4s 3 5s 8s 6s 2s 2s 1s 5s 8s 5s 9s 8s 9s 2s 3s G 6s 3s 9s 2s A ve 49 s40 s 32 s63 s As can be seen from the table above, the time of speaking changed a lot through observations The average time of speaking reached the longest (63 seconds) in the fourth observation on the topic of Women in Society (Unit 15) 32 seconds accounted for the shortest average time of speaking This figure belongs to the third observation on the topic of International Organizations Almost eight groups went through the same pattern of longer speaking time on topic and 4, and shorter speaking time on topic and This matched with the results of the interview that the students felt more motivated with the topics they like, hence could speak better and longer The average time of the fourth observation is the highest This indicates that students could use the language to express their ideas the best in this topic In conclusion, the topics and the background knowledge affect the ability of students’ speaking skills The finding from the observation is that students gradually use less Vietnamese in their speaking There were still time when students used Vietnamese during their discussions The reasons for using Vietnamese were significantly due to their lack of vocabulary to express their ideas or did not understand what their friends said The table below shows the details of how students use Vietnamese when speaking Table 12: Students’ Using Vietnamese G ro O bs O bs O bs O bs Observer’s reflections G G G G G G G 2 8s 0s 0s 3s 0s 0s 8s 0s 5s 2s 5s 5s 3s 0s 0s 7s 5s 5s 3s 0s 0s 0s 0s 6s 5s 5s 3s 0s G 0s 2s 2s 2s A ve 34 s12 s 28 s7s The table shows the time students used Vietnamese during their discussion time Many language learners face the problems of thinking in their mother tongue instead of in the target language This prevents learners from improving their language acquisition Almost all eight groups did not use much Vietnamese on topic and (Books and Women in Society) This can be explained that students had enough vocabulary to express in English Some groups seemed not to use any Vietnamese at all (Group and 5) Finally, the data collected through the number of complex sentences and simple sentences show that after the experiment of problem-solving technique, students can use more complex sentences in a more fluent way The number of simple sentences is still high but they made fewer grammatical errors In summary, regarding the research questions, both qualitative and quantitative methods were appeared to be effective in measuring the effectiveness of problemsolving tasks in improving students’ speaking skills The findings of the research are consistent to the prior studies The findings indicate that students were motivated by means of problem-solving tasks The tasks help them overcome their fear of shame, lack of vocabulary, lack of confidence, and lack of speaking skills Relating to the improvement of speaking skills, it might be concluded that most of the partic- ipants expressed they could overcome the barriers that prevented them from speaking The participants gained a great deal of positive experience with English through a wealth positive peer interaction in the supportive and non-threatening learning environment The experience of using English as a communicative tool, instead of studying not only improves students’ speaking skills in the real context, but also motivates them to speak and try out the language The study shared the similar findings as Reza F., Hery Y & Rosita S that students perform better on the familiar topics The findings show that students are motivated when they are satisfied They achieve their satisfaction of autonomy, competence of relatedness Besides, this study agrees on the finding of Yousef & Banafshed (2017) that problemsolving tasks encouraged students in innovative and creative ways The tasks also motivate students in the cheerful and dynamic way Natela and Gulnara (2008) shared the finding that the tasks help students overcome their difficulties and help them communicative independently PART C: CONCLUSION The part of the study is to summarize the key findings, discuss the pedagogical implications for teachers of English and the limitations of the study Recommendations for further research is followed to enhance the value of problem-solving tasks to improve students’ speaking skills Summary of the key findings The study aims at two main objectives, which were to explore the effects of problem-solving tasks on students’ speaking skills and to indicate the elements motivating students to learn through problem-solving tasks The study was conducted on 44 students of grade 12 at a High School with the intervention of problem-solving tasks in their speaking activities A mixture of qualitative and quantitative approach was carried out to obtain the study’ objectives through interviews, observations and paired samples t-test It can be clear that the utilizing problem-solving tasks in improving learners’ speaking skills proved to be effective The main findings of the study are summarized as follows Firstly, participants of the study showed that they were more motivated to speak in the problem-solving tasks rather than in the traditional textbook-based tasks The findings indicate that students are more interested in the tasks because the tasks were beneficial to them The results showed that they engaged in the tasks because of their intrinsic motivation They felt satisfied with themselves and with the tasks Problem-solving tasks invite learners to offer advice and recommendation on problems on their own way To be able to solve the problem, learners need to understand the situation, have knowledge about it and can perform the solution Participants of the tasks not need to depend on the teacher or the provided materials for their own solution of the problem Secondly, the results of the data collection process indicated that students’ speaking skills could be improved through the tasks Requiring learners to engage in the authentic tasks encourages them to practice the language they learn and therefore learn from that Most of the participants reported that they gained a lot through the tasks, including their confidence, vocabulary, ability to use the target language in different situations and the ability to speak fluently The results of the data analysis illustrate that the more motivated a learner is, the better he or she can perform in the target language This can be explained that learners of the tasks showed their high interest in the peer interaction This positive communication pattern encourages them to speak without the fear of shame Learners have to communicate in the limited time to complete the tasks The participants reported that they were comfortable to speak They could learn from their friends the language functions to speak more fluently The vocabulary they got from the authentic tasks could be kept in their long-term memory better The use of target language in the creative and high motivating contexts helped them learn the language better Pedagogical implications of the study The results of the study have confirmed the importance in educational technology in foreign language learning which mentioned here is problem-solving tasks as an approach to improve learners’ speaking skills and have some implications in aiming for better language teaching planning As already argued, it is essential for language teachers to be aware of the advantages of utilizing problem-solving tasks in teaching a language Learning a language through problems is considered effective not in speaking skills but in other skills, too It is advisable that language teachers free themselves from their dependence on their textbooks and the textbook-based tasks to think and design the tasks which invite students to learn to solve the problems This requires language teacher to be creative, independent and devoted To make the tasks effective, according to the participants, the topics need to be authentic, current, and familiar to students Therefore, the topic needs to be carefully chosen Students showed their more interest in the updated, current events They could perform better on the familiar topics When designing the tasks, teachers also need to notice the background knowledge of the students which as reported plays an important role in the success of the tasks Teachers should provide learners with the necessary information of the topics before the lesson or give the instruction or requirement of searching for information as homework before carrying out the task Importantly, students need to be wellprepared of what they are going to learn Participants of the study reported that if they did not know much about the topic, it consumed a lot of time finding information and vocabulary for the solutions of the tasks Next, it is advisable for the teacher to identify the purpose of the tasks, the aspects of the language, the skills which the teacher wants their students to improve Fully understanding the objectives of the tasks, the teacher can design the tasks effective- ly When designing the tasks, the teacher should notice some main factors as follow The problem is explained clearly The possible solutions are given The task is designed scientifically The size of the groups is also a necessary factor that the teacher needs to consider Too big group can prevent all learners from having enough time to speak Too small group can encounter the difficulty of gathering ideas and discussion The task’s instruction needs to be clear enough Another pedagogical implement is for language teacher educators In preparing teachers to teach, teachers should be educated and trained properly The language teacher educators should raise awareness of the importance of using this technique in teaching speaking skills It is necessary for the teachers to be introduce new language teaching methods Teachers also should be trained the ability to teach, and the ability to develop appropriate teaching materials Limitations of the study Despite of effectiveness of the research methodology, several limitations of the research may affect the generalizability of the results First, the study was not a fully randomized trial Since the participants of the study was subjectively chosen by the researcher It was class 12A1, at a High School in the North of Vietnam The results and findings of the study may have been different if the participants were changed Second, the study was constrained in the very short time of a semester The results of the speaking tests may have been different, too Moreover, the results from qualitative approach were quite subjective Besides, I was the researcher, observer and interviewer at the same time The results may have been different if the other teacher taught the class and the participants were interviewed by another teacher During the data collection from observations, I was responsible for carrying out the tasks as well as observing the students’ work Therefore, there is a limitation in observing all the students’ performance Finally, the number of participants for the study was small, just 44 students This figure affected the final outcome of the study because it did not collect all opinions of all students of grade 12 Recommendations In addition to addressing the above limitations, in future empirical studies, I provide some recommendations to promote the effects of problem-solving tasks in teaching speaking skills Firstly, I only conducted the research in the period of a semester, future studies should be conducted in the longer and with a large number of participants for more objective results Secondly, the speaking tests should be based on the international grading rubrics, not the self-designed rubrics The teachers who score the tests should not be the researcher It is recommended that the raters should be two Then the scores of the two raters could be compared for more accuracy Thirdly, Because I was at the same time the observer and the teacher in the data collection from observations, in order to achieve reliable observation data, the researcher needs to fully observe the students’ performance Finally, to promote students to answer the interview questions frankly, the teacher should also be encouraged to create a positive and favorable environment for students to receive feedback which reflects true about students’ opinions REFERENCES Al-Tamimi, Nasser Omer M & Attamimi, Rais A (2014) Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning in Enhancing Speaking Skills and Attitudes towards Learning English International 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Problem Solving and Comprehension Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaun Associates Yousef, B & Banafshed, A (2017) The Effect of Problem-Solving Tasks on the Iranian Intermediate EFL Learner’s Speaking Skill Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 4(6), 174-182 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Interview guide Date of interview: Participant name: M P Q os A re yo : u H Q W hi : c W Q hC an yo : u W sp h ea k at Q W : W h at m h at s h o ul Time of interview: Appendix 2: Observation sheet Observation Sheet Sc ho Te ac Cl as N uA ge To pi N aCr ite B o O Observer’s reflections bs O G G G G G G G G bs T he D is T he lo St u de St uP au St u de U si U si Girls: Appendix 3: Speaking Test Results The test results Pre-Test Scores N N S N o aH co o 2 oà Đ 32 ỗH 67 oà N 68 gL êN gTr ần N 62 gTr 72 ần Tr 56 gB ùi Đ ỗĐ ỗH hạ N gN 42 52 ần Đ in Q 56 03 uá V 8 13 ũN 011 oà P hạ P 57 21 31 N Sc aĐ or ỗN 57 82 93 23 33 gL êV 57 43 ũĐ 58 53 ặn M 41 51 gP 63 V hạ N 58 73 ũL 61 gV 83 êV 71 ũP 94 ũP 81 92 57 hạ V 04 Đ ũH 57 14 àTr 02 oà N 57 24 ần N 12 gL 34 gH ê oa Post-Test Scores N N S N o aH co o 2 oà Đ 56 32 ỗH oà N gL êN gTr ần N 62 gTr 58 72 ần Tr gB 57 ùi Đ 58 ỗĐ ỗH hạ N gN 42 52 ần Đ in Q 59 56 03 uá V 59 13 ũN 55 011 oà P hạ P 21 31 N Sc aĐ or ỗN 57 82 93 23 33 gL êV 57 43 ũĐ 58 53 ặn M 58 41 51 gP 63 V hạ N 73 ũL 61 gV 57 83 êV 71 ũP 55 94 ũP 81 92 hạ V 04 Đ ũH 14 àTr 02 oà N 24 ần N 12 gL 34 gH ê 57 oa 39 ... UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN TUYET ANH USING PROBLEM SOLVING TASKS TO IMPROVE GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS (Ứng dụng tập giải vấn đề nhằm giúp nâng cao kỹ nói cho học sinh. .. in a High School in the North of Vietnam during the second semester of the school year 2018-2019 The reason why I chose this school for my research is that this is a public high school equipped... was teaching This study involved 44 grade 12 students of class 12A1 of the school They were at the age of 18, with 21 girls and 23 boys The students were chosen randomly This class is the class