Using information gap activitives to motivate students in speaking lessons for the first-year non-English major students at Phuong Dong University

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI University of LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL studies FACULTY of postgraduate studies Lại Thị Đua USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY Sư dơng c¸c hoạt động có khoảng trống thông tin nhằm gây hứng thú cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên học nói tr-ờng đại học ph-ơng đông MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI University of LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL studies FACULTY of postgraduate studies Lại thị đua USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY Sử dụng hoạt động có khoảng trống thông tin nhằm gây hứng thú cho sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên học nói tr-ờng đại học ph-ơng đông MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: lª thÕ nghiƯp, MA HANOI – 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF CHARTS vi PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methodology of the study Research hypothesis Design of the study PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Teaching speaking 1.1.1 Concepts of speaking 1.1.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching 1.1.3 Factors affecting English speaking ability 1.2 Information gap activities 1.2.1 Concept of information gap activities 1.2.1.1 Concept of information gap 1.2.1.2 Concept of information gap activities 1.2.2 Benefits of information gap activities 1.2.3 Teachers’ roles in information gap activities 1.2.4 Forms of information gap activities 10 1.2.5 Some popular information gap activities 11 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 An action research 13 2 Research questions 13 2.3 The informants 13 The action research procedure 14 5 Description of Data Collection Instruments 16 2.5.1 Questionnaires 16 2.5.2 Observations 17 2.5.3 Tests 17 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 18 3.1 Data collected from preliminary investigation stage – Questionnaire 18 3.1.1 Students’ attitude towards speaking skill 18 3.1.2 Factors causing students’ low motivation in speaking English 20 3.2 Intervention 21 3.2.1 The aims of the intervention 21 3.2.2 The intervention of information gap activities 21 3.3 Data collected from the intervention stage 26 3.3.1 Data collected from Observation sheets 26 3.3.2 Data collected from Questionnaire 27 3.3.2 Data collected from the tests 29 3.3.2 Data from pre-test 29 3.3.2 Data from post-test 30 PART THREE: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 33 Summary of the study 33 Suggestions for the teachers 33 Limitations and suggestions for further research 35 REFERENCES 36 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire III APPENDIX 3: Observation sheet – Overall class motivation IV APPENDIX 4: Data on overall class motivation V APPENDIX 5: Samples of the tests VI ABSTRACT Motivation has long been believed to be one of the key factors that have a great impact on success and failure of second/foreign language learning In an attempt to increase students’ motivation in English speaking activities at Phuong Dong University, the researcher aims to find out the causes of students’ low motivation, the importance of using information activities to motivate students to speak English, and the suggestions for teachers to apply information gap activities at Phuong Dong University To find the answers to these questions, an action research was carried out through several steps, using a combination of data collection instruments (questionnaire, observation, pre-tests and post-tests) The results showed that the students’ motivation increased significantly when the intervention was implemented Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to the implementation of Information Gap Activities in improving speaking skills for students at Phuong Dong University Thank you for evaluating AnyBizSoft PDF Merger! To remove this page, please register your program! Go to Purchase Now>> AnyBizSoft PDF Merger  Merge multiple PDF files into one  Select page range of PDF to merge  Select specific page(s) to merge  Extract page(s) from different PDF files and merge into one