using role play to improve 10th graders’ speaking skill at a mountainous upper secondary school in binh thuan province

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Thị Linh Sơn USING ROLE PLAY TO IMPROVE 10TH GRADERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT A MOUNTAINOUS UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BINH THUAN PROVINCE MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Thị Linh Sơn USING ROLE PLAY TO IMPROVE 10TH GRADERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT A MOUNTAINOUS UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BINH THUAN PROVINCE Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Lê Hương Hoa, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020 DECLARATION BY THE AUTHOR Honestly speaking, I declare that this thesis “Using role play to improve 10th graders’ speaking skill at a mountainous upper secondary school in Bình Thuận province”, which I have written, is not a plagiarism, except those cited in the quotation and the source of which is listed on the bibliography Author’s signature Trần Thị Linh Sơn Approved by SUPERVISOR Lê Hương Hoa, Ph.D Date: …………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of carrying out this thesis, I have received a larger amount of contribution and support from many people First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Lê Hương Hoa, who always gives useful advices and her enthusiasm to finish this thesis I also address my deepest gratitude to Dr Đặng Nguyên Giang, as The Head of the English Department, for his support and encouragement in the process of finishing this thesis Next, I would like to thank the headmaster of Đức Linh High school, Phan Văn Pháp, who has allowed and supported me to complete the Master thesis Last but not at least, I would like fly my gratitude to my family, my friends, my colleagues and my students who have given me constant support during the completion of the study ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION BY THE AUTHOR i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim(s) of the Study 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Research Methods 1.7 Structure of the Study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): 1.1 Concepts of CLT 1.2 Main characteristics of CLT 1.3 Conditions of Applying CLT 2.1.4 Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skill 2 An overview of role play 2.1 What is role play? 2.2.2 Types of role-play 2.2.3 Techniques to Control Role-Play 12 2.2.4 Procedures of role-play 12 2.3 Speaking skill 15 iii 2.3.1 Definition of speaking skill 15 2.3.2 The elements ofspeaking 16 2.3.3 Points to consider about speaking 17 2.4 Using Role-Play in Teaching and learning Speaking 19 2.5 Summary…………………………….……………………………… 20 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 The method of research 22 3.2 Setting and subjects of theinvestigation 22 3.3 The Research Design 23 3.4 The Classroom Action Research Procedures 27 3.4.1 Planning Phase 27 3.4.2 Acting Phase 27 3.4.3 Observing Phase 27 3.4.4 Reflecting Phase 28 3.5 The Technique of Collecting Data 28 3.5.1 Observation 28 3.5.2 Questionnaire 29 3.5.3 Test 30 3.5.4 The Technique of Data Analysis 32 3.6 The Criteria of the Action Success 34 3.7 Summary………………………….………………………………… 34 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ……………………… 35 4.1 The Description of the Data 35 4.1.1 Findings before Implementing the Classroom Action Research 35 4.1.2 Findings of the First Cycle 36 4.1.3 Findings of the Second Cycle 39 4.2 Findings after Implementing the Classroom Action Research 44 iv 4.2.1 The Result of Posttest 44 4.2.2 The result of Questionnaire 51 4.3 Summary 545 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 56 5.1 Recapitulation: 56 5.2 Conclusion Remarks 57 5.3 Implications 57 5.4 Limitation and Suggestions for Further Studies 59 5.4.1 Limitation 59 5.4.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 59 REFERENCES 61 APPENDICES I Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Appendix IV Appendix V v ABSTRACT There are various ways to improve students ' speaking skills and this study is not conducted beyond that purpose In particular, this study focuses on the way in which Role-Play Technique is applied in teaching speaking, particularly in the environment of a mountainous upper secondary school Role-play strategy is generally considered to be one of the most effective ways of teaching speaking skills However, it is evident that using Role-Play Training, teaching English in general and speaking skills in particular, is now becoming increasingly popular in schools because of the interest it provides This thesis therefore focuses on implementing the Role-Play Technique and proves that its use can help to enhance student speaking skills The researcher, having analyzed the statistics, discussed and recommended some implications along with suggestions for further research Finally, it is highly hoped that the study results might be useful for the development of English speaking teaching and learning skills in a mountainous district in the province of Binh Thuan vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.5.1 Assessing Students’ Progress Table 3.5 The Rating Scores of Oral Test Table 4.2.1 The Students’ Speaking Score of Pre-test, Post test 1, Post test Table 4.2.2.a The use of role play technique Table 4.2.2.b Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill Table 4.2.2.c Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Communicative Language Teaching = CLT Classroom action research = CAR Students = Sts viii Options % of Ss lack of confidence in pronunciation 19.5 lack of vocabularies 22 lack of ideas to develop the topics 24.4 all of them 34.1 Table 4.2.2.c Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking (Please refer to question in Appendix 1) From the collected data above, it can be found that there are a lot of problems that prevented the students from presenting their ideas in speech, such as the shortage of vocabularies, the problems in pronunciation or no ideas to develop their thinking By analyzing the data, the researcher learned that the large number of the students had difficulties in all of items surveyed, the number of this item is up to 34.1 % with 14 students Many of them felt that they cannot express their ideas because they could not find out their own opinions to expand Therefore, it is essential to use the role play strategy to with model dialogue and explained vocabularies for students to join in As observed above, before utilizing role play in teaching speaking skills, 39% of the students conceded that their low self-confidence is one of the fundamental obstacles for communicating in English in the class However, the students’ self-confidence also improved from 54% of the students who fulfilled the initial four of five indicators of high self-confidence in the first cycle to 71.4% in the subsequent cycle In view of the information above, it may be inferred that there was a significant improvement in the students’ speaking performance and their fearlessness using role play activities in English speaking classes; and the results of the second cycle had satisfied the criteria of achievement In this manner, it could be expressed that the research was fruitful 54 4.3 Summary In summary, from the data collected from observation, questionnaire and the two tests and by using Classroom Action Research supported by Kurt Lewin (1993) as the study method, the researcher found that role-play method really improved the tenth –grade students’ speaking ability in a mountainous upper secondary school in Bình Thuận province Furthermore, the results that the researcher achieved from this study answered three research questions mentioned in chapter 1.Therefore, the researcher decided to stop her study and to give her conclusion for the research 55 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation: The researcher used the Classroom Action Research (CAR) method to identify the problem on students’ speaking ability It was initiated through the observation with the participation of 41 students from the class 10A8 of Đức Linh high school in Bình Thuận province, whose speaking ability is low The author implemented the Kurt Lewin’s design (1993) which consists of four phases in this Classroom Action Research: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting The data was collected from the observation, the tests (pre-test, post-test and post-test 2), and questionnaire with questions From the result of the survey, there was 12.19 % (64.56 – 52.37) improvement of students’ mean score from pretest to the posttest There were students who got over 6.5 point in the pre test Meanwhile, from the result of posttest in cycle1, there were or 17.1% students in the class who got the point over 6.5 This number increased in comparison with the pretest Next, based on the result of the posttest in cycle 2, there were 23 students or 56.1% students in the class who passed 6.5 considering their mean score 64.56 This time, from the result of posttest 1, the researcher made some changes in choosing the techniques of role play and also focused on helping the inactive students With the results achieved, 41/41 students got the points over 5.0 The number really satisfied the researcher because the number of students that had low level of speaking skill is no longer Therefore, in the second cycle, she tried to pay attention to the students with low points more than before with the hope that the fantastic situation of the context can attract them to join in speaking activities It is shown that the 56 students had significant improvement which can be seen from the score that got higher and higher, from pretest, posttest1, and posttest 5.2 Conclusion Remarks Based on the findings and discussions of the study, it can be concluded that using role-play technique can significantly improve the tenth-graders’ speaking skill in a mountainous upper secondary school By correlating the result to the observation, questionnaires and the tests that the researcher achieved while using Classroom Action Research of Kurt Lewin (1993), and role-play technique supported by Littlewood (1994), it can be proved that students’ speaking ability has been improved incredibly by the score they got By using role play strategy, the researcher also stimulates the spirit of the learners during teaching and learning process The students are more interested in taking a part in the role that they were given The number of the students that got the scores over 6.5 has increased The study result strongly confirmed that role play can be a powerful category that helps the students improve their speaking skill, especially the students in a mountainous area who have low level in English Moreover, they have a little chance to communicate to native speakers as well as to approach to modern facilities in learning English – a global language It can be concluded that the students like role play technique In addition, the observation checklist showed that the students seemed braver and more confident in speaking It is proven by their participationintheclassconversations,discussions, perform in the front of the class, pronunciation, fluency and feeling confidentabout speaking 5.3 Implications Based on the results of the data analysis of using action research to enhance the students ' performance of role-play activities, it was reported that 57 the researcher was moving in the right direction to achieve the goals of the report Consequently, this study has some practical implications as follows for teachers and students at Đức Linh high school: Firstly, it is applying various types of role-play activities This technique could be applied at a more frequent level in teaching the foreign language, particularly the English speaking lessons Students will have more opportunities to practice communicating, and will have more confidence and trust in their oral presentation Secondly, from analyzing the data collected, the researcher found out the difficulties that the students often had when they were in speaking classes She implemented some suitable techniques to her students Therefore, the author felt it necessary to give some implications asfollows: For Teachers:  As a conductor of a teaching and learning process, teacher should choose the most suitable and interesting technique to a certain topic in a speaking class  It is very necessary for the teacher to create and innovate to use various techniquesand present the language in an enjoyable, relaxed and understandableway  The teacher also needs to redesign the dialogues so that they are suitable to the level of the students that they are teaching The students will be more attracted to such an interesting context For Students:  Student should not feel shy, nervous or be afraid of making mistakes in acting out theirrole  Students should open themselves to have more chance of self- development inspeaking 58  Students should be studious to equip their knowledge with an amount of vocabulary and practice their pronunciation so that they can feel more confident in speaking lessons 5.4 Limitation and Suggestions for Further Studies 5.4.1 Limitation In spite of the fact that the researcher has tried her best to conduct this research, because of the impediment of knowledge, teaching experience and time as well, errors and shortcoming are unavoidable First of all, the researcher is also the teacher in the process of implementing role play activities, so the data collection through observation is limited Next, survey questionnaires were perceived by the students In addition, the result of some tests may not be their real ability Thus, they were simply seen by the students and the researcher 5.4.2 Suggestions for Further Studies In this part, the researcher would like to give some suggestions to be considered by English teacher asfollows: - Role play technique would be very helpful to improve students’ ability in speaking, so the teacher needs to maintain using role play technique as alternative technique of the teaching process of students in grade 10 as well as students at all grade at a high school - The teacher should give clear explanation and instruction in directing her students using role-play - The teacher should control the students’activities - The teacher should be an active director and creative continuously in order to encourage involving from the large number of students in class 59 Finally, the writer realizes that this research still have some weakness and mistakes Therefore, the writer would like to accept any constructive suggestions to make this researchbetter 60 REFERENCES Foreign authors Burns, A (1999) Collaborative Action Research for EnglishLanguage Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Burns, A.& Joyce, H (2002) Focus on speaking Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research (NCELTR) Bygate, & Martin (1997) Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education; Speaking Oxford: Oxford University Press Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford: Oxford University Press Byrne, D (1998) Teaching Oral English Longman Publishing Group Gower, Roger, Diane Philips & Steve Walters (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook Oxford: Heinemann English Language Teaching Gower, R., & Walters, S (1983) Teaching practice handbook London; Exeter, NH: Heinemann Educational Books Hammersley, & Martyn.(1993) Educational Research: Current Issues Heaton, J.B (1990) Classroom Testing: Longman Keys to Language Teaching New York: Longman Kayi, & Hayriye (2010) Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language, http: //iteslj.org/Techniques / KayiTeachingSpeaking.html (Accessed on August, 20th) Ladousse, & Gillian Porter (1997).Role Play New York: Oxford University Press Matthews, & Candace (1994) Speaking Solution: Interaction, Presentation, Listening, and Pronunciation Skill New Jersey: Prentice- Hall, Inc McDonough, Jo & Christopher Shaw (2003) Materials and Methods in ELT Malden: Blackwell Publishing 61 Nunan, D (Ed.) (2003) Practical English language teaching (1st ed) Revell, & Jane (1994) Teaching Techniques for Communicative English London: MacMillan Press Ur, P (1996) A course in language teaching: Practice and theory Ur, & Penny (2007) Discussions that Work: Task-Centered Fluency Practice New York: Cambridge University Press Wallace,& Michael, J (2006).Action Research for Language Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Vietnamese authors Vũ Thị Lợi (2006) Giới thiệu giáo án Tiếng Anh 10 Nxb Giáodục Hoàng Văn Vân (2012) Tiếng Anh 10 Nxb GiáoDục 62 APPENDICES Appendix Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires for students Student’s name:……………………………Date……… Objective: To find out students’ attitudes towards applying or using role play activities in speaking lessons to developing speaking skills for the students Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You only choose one option 1/How often has your teacher used role-play activities in your speaking lesson? A usually B sometimes C rarely D never 2/How much you like speaking skill? A very much B much C a little D not at all 3/ Are you interested in joining role-play activities? A really like B like C like a little D dislike 4/ What are your difficulties in learning English through role-play activities? A lack of confidence in pronunciation B lack of vocabularies C lack of ideas to develop the topics D all of them 5/ Is your speaking skill improved through role-play activities? A Yes, a lot B Yes C Yes, but a little D No, not at all Thank you for your co-operation! I Appendix The Questions of Pre-Test The test 1: (interview) Good Morning/Hello/Hi 1/ What is yourname? 2/ Where you live? What you like about your hometown? 3/ How many people are there in your family? Who are they? 4/ What does your mother/ father look like? 5/ Do you like speaking English? Why/ Why not? 6/ What you often to improve your English? II Appendix The Questions of Post-Test and Post- Test (Role Playing) Create a dialogue based on the role card and perform in the front of the class! You and your friend discuss about your school activities What activities at your school youlike best? Tell me something about it? Explain the reason why you like it? You and your friend talk about your family Tell her/ him about your mother/ father/ sister/ father Tell about his/ her age, career, hobby, appearance and personal characteristics III Appendix The Procedures of the Test Test (Pre-Test) The test is done in the classroom The students face the teacher The teacher calls students one by one and gives the questions of the test1 The student answers what the teacherasked Test (Post-Test and Post-Test 2)(Role Playing) The teacher gives the instructionof the test 2 The teacher shows some envelopes, which contains some role cards The students (in pair) take rolecard Thestudentsactoutasroleplaybasedontherolecard IV Appendix The Students’ Speaking Score of Pre-test, Post test 1, Post test Student number Pre-test Post-test Post-test S1 60 63 68 S2 55 60 65 S3 68 70 73 S4 45 50 63 S5 45 50 53 S6 45 48 58 S7 48 55 60 S8 60 60 65 S9 53 58 65 S 10 60 63 68 S 11 65 78 83 S 12 73 80 90 S 13 65 68 80 S 14 40 46 50 S 15 40 46 55 S 16 35 40 53 S 17 50 58 65 S 18 35 40 55 S 19 55 60 68 S 20 53 55 65 S 21 45 45 50 S 22 55 60 58 V S 23 65 62 68 S 24 63 65 80 S 25 50 55 68 S 26 53 58 68 S 27 63 65 78 S 28 56 60 58 S 29 60 63 65 S 30 55 55 50 S 31 44 55 65 S 32 63 63 70 S 33 36 40 50 S 34 35 50 55 S 35 56 55 60 S 36 45 50 58 S 37 46 48 63 S 38 65 70 83 S 39 46 60 70 S 40 53 55 63 S 41 43 50 65 Mean: 52.37 56.88 64.56 VI ... Collecting Data Techniques of collecting data in this research are using qualitative data and quantitative data The qualitative data consists of observation Meanwhile, the quantitative data uses...VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Thị Linh Sơn USING ROLE PLAY TO IMPROVE 10TH GRADERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT A MOUNTAINOUS UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BINH THUAN. .. ways of teaching speaking skills However, it is evident that using Role- Play Training, teaching English in general and speaking skills in particular, is now becoming increasingly popular in schools