Enhance speaking skills through communicative activities to students in grade 9th at hung binh secondary school

PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study The learning of English speaking skill is a preference for a lot of English as a Foreign/Second Language learners Language learners sometimes evaluate their success in language learning based on how well they have improved in their spoken language ability This is also the purpose of those who are learning English as a foreign language The widespread popularity of English has led to a surprising increase in English learners nowadays, especially those in Asian countries in general and Vietnam in particular Vietnamese students studying English as a preparation for their future work often require communication in English In secondary schools, learning English becomes more important for students as it is a compulsory subject for the final secondary school exam This also causes a common problem: Translation method - Grammar is mainly used Teachers often teach grammar rather than skills Teaching grammar just to meet the needs of students at that time After finishing secondary school, students cannot use the English they have been learning for a long time for communication purposes They can not speak English even in a daily conversation, so how can they use English in the workplace communication environment? The fact that English teachers in secondary schools need to pay more attention to students Listening and Speaking skills It is better for students if the teacher applies Teaching Language in the classroom To achieve the goal of learning English - to be able to communicate with both native speakers and native speakers communication activities in English classes are essential In particular, teachers can easily apply a number of communication activities in speaking lessons that are always related to an important feature - learners talk a lot (Brown, 2001) However, in practice, some challenges prevent teachers from organizing communication activities in speaking classes; A popular teaching time is limited The issues as mentioned above lead to the essential problem of the thesis: Enhance speaking skills through communicative activities to students in grade th at Hung Binh secondary school Research is conducted for a specific group of students at a specific high school in an effort to realize speech classes and provide solutions for teachers to help students learn English better Aims of the study The purpose of this study is to find out the types of communication activities that help students improve their speaking skills Detail: + Learn about the situation of teaching and learning English speaking skills in grade of Hung Binh Secondary School + Identify factors affecting teaching and learning English speaking skills in grade of Hung Binh Secondary School + Suggest types of communication activities to improve English speaking skills for students Scope of the study This is the first research topic of communication activities for students in grade of Hung Binh Secondary School Methodology The study used quantitative methods in data analysis through survey questionnaires Design of the study The study consists of three parts Part A is an introduction that presents the arguments, literature review, purpose and scope of the study as well as the methodology for the research Part B is the main part consisting of three chapters Chapter one is about the theoretical background for research This chapter aims to establish an investigative framework It is primarily concerned with including the theory of communication activities in teaching and learning English speaking skills The second chapter is about presenting an overview of the results and discussing the results of the survey questions about communication activities among 9th grade students at Hung Binh Secondary School Chapter three deals with data analysis, discussion of conclusions, and recommendations The final section concludes with a summary of the study and provides possible conclusions and recommendations for further research PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1.1 An overview of Communicative language teaching 1.1.1 Definition of Communicative language teaching It has been noticed that the goal of the most of the methods is to make the students able to communicate in the target language But in the 1970s, the educators tried to find out whether they were going to meet the goal of the students in a right way or not It had been observed that students were able to write and read the sentences in target language correctly But when it came to communicate in the target language, they failed to so It made clear to the observer that to make the students able to communicate in the target language, it required more than mastering only the linguistic structures It had been accepted by the educators that to be able to communicate in the target language, communicative competence is required with linguistic competence There had been a shift from the linguistic structure centered approach to communicative approach in the late 1970s and 80s Communicative language teaching is an approach to teach foreign or second language which emphasizes on communicative competence It also emphasizes on interaction as a means to teach language Communicative Language Teaching replaced the Situation Language Teaching which had been used to teach English as a second or foreign language It had been considered as the major British approach The focus of SLT approach was on to teach the basic structures of language But in the 1960s, the educators realized that language taught on the basis of situational learning would have been of no use Because to teach the meaning, carried out from the utterances was more required as it expressed the intentions of the speaker or writer In the mid of 1970s, the scope of Communicative Language Teaching has extended Both American and British proponents now see it as an approach that aim to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and develop procedure for the teaching of four language skill that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Richards & Rodgers 1986:66) At the level of language theory, Communicative Language Teaching has a rich, if somewhat eclectic, theoretical base (Richards & Rodgers 1986:71) 1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative language teaching • It aims to make learners to attain communicative competence so the learners can use language accurately and appropriately • The major focus while using Communicative language teaching approach is on the learners The teacher is just the facilitator The teacher is a person who manages the environment and helps the learners to become autonomous The syllabus emphasizes the functional use of language The syllabus is relying on the authentic materials The tasks which are assigned to the learners have purposes and meanings • Communicative activities enable the learners to attain communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication, and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction (Richards & Rodgers 1986:76) 1.2 Communicative activities 1.2.1 Definition of communicative activities Communicative activities refers to the classroom activities that provide a genuine information gap and make it possible for language learners to communicate with target language in Communicative Language Teaching Approaches (Liao, 2000) In other words, communicative activities are activities that give students both a desire to communicate and a purpose which involve them in a varied use of language They have real purposes: to find information, to break down barriers, to talk about oneself, and to learn about the culture Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated into the lesson Communicative activities are fluency-based activities (Tait, S., 2001) While such activities may involve students to practice a particular grammatical form, they are likely to more than this The key element is that the activity is based on a realistic situation This could be anything from an encounter in a department store, to a group of friends discussing holiday plans, etc Within this kind of context, students should be required to negotiate for meaning This is likely to require multiple turn taking 1.2.2 Charateristics of communicative activities  The success of a communicative activity can be determined by the extent to which learners are dependent on the teacher Tasks should be devised in a manner that learners gain autonomy and independence while learning  The role of the teachers is to give clear and to the point instructions and provide the appropriate environment for learners to interact and exchange information  Communicative activities are motivating Learners should be at ease and have fun while doing the communicative tasks  Communicative tasks are realistic Real communication situations should be the focus instead of isolated structures with no real-life reference  While in teacher-led classrooms learners were expected to be quiet and listen to the teacher and then, when asked, to respond to the teacher in unison with the one correct answer, communicative tasks require learners to take initiatives and provide their responses ( instead of a response) to contribute to the success of learning  Communicative activities are meaningful: they are carried out to fulfil specific purposes such as booking a plane, hotel ticket, inviting somebody to a party, answering an invitation letter, shopping…  Performance in communicative tests reflects an underlying competence that is linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, strategic…Communicative activities should consider this multi-dimensional nature of language 1.2.3 Types of communicative activities There have been many different types of communication over time In prehistoric times we started with non verbal communication with cave drawings that eventually evolved into speech Later, symbols were developed and a form of writing began People would communicate with each other or groups of people in many ways throughout time In the modern world, the importance of communication has come a long way From writing by hand, to using a typewriter, then emails and now texts Our voice communication has gone from speaking in person, to the telephone, radio, cell phone and now there's Skype For our purposes, we will focus on the different types of communication that can improve businesses and your personal life These include verbal and non verbal communication as well as formal and informal communication Verbal Communication Verbal communication is the most common way of interacting with different people This is where you speak directly to one or more persons whether it's in a business, family or personal setting It is widely used in all aspects of life including entertainment on the TV, radio, Youtube and so on The advantages are you can slow down or repeat yourself to get a point across, put emphasis where it's needed and influence those that are listening The disadvantages are that it can be easily forgotten or misinterpreted Non Verbal Communication Non verbal communication is used just as much Sometimes you don't even realize you're sending a message without saying anything It includes your facial expressions, hand gestures, posture, touching and type of clothing you wear When you speak, the intention of what you're saying can be changed by the tone of voice you use or how fast or slow you talk Formal communication is when you follow rules and conduct yourself in a professional manner including the wearing of appropriate attire This includes giving a speech to an audience, speaking in meetings or sending out letters Informal communication is more casual You generally use this type with friends and family members Texting, chatting with friends, using hand gestures are generally considered informal ways to communicate Effective Types of Communication For effective communication, you need to listen more, rather than speak more Communication is a two way street If you did all the talking and the others never responded, you wouldn't really know what to say after awhile Without feedback, you won't know how to improve or know what things to say That's why listening is so important It's essential to find out what your audience wants or needs to hear You need to listen to what people are saying and what they aren't saying Pay attention to their facial expressions and body posture Do these people state their opinions? Are they listening to you or are they constantly interrupting? It's also important to know as much as possible about your topic of conversation Research it thoroughly Think of any questions that my come up and by all means, explain why you have an opinion on the subject Essentials of Business Communication When you're in a business setting, it's important to get your message out and in a clear way Before you this, you need to your homework Set up a plan If you don't have a plan, there could be a conflict or people could misunderstand your message A business needs to promote their product or service through different types of channels These may include advertising on TV, radio, Internet, print, or word of mouth With the cell phone and texting; computers and email, technology has taken communication in business to a whole new level With all the technological advances, the different types of communication in the world today play important roles in developing our businesses and personal lives 1.2.4 Roles of communicative activities in language teaching and learning Every speaking lesson should be based on communicative activities which fulfil two important language learning needs They encourage students to acquire language knowledge and prepare them for real-life language uses Achieving the outcome requires the participants to interact, which means not only speak with a person but also listen to what he or she is saying and react to it Communicative activities have a strong effect on student’s motivation in the lessons They help students have more chance to talk to lots of classmates without a fear of making mistakes In a communicative activity, instead of having students stand in front of class and talk to others, the teacher sets up the activity that they can talk to some other students but not the whole class and the teacher That makes a better effect on helping students avoid their fear of making mistakes Then they seem to be more confident to speak and eager to speak a lot In Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), it is suggested that language should be taught through the use of target language and practice communication, especially through communicative activities They focus on not only the grammatical structure of the language but also the language use in real-life situations 1.3 An overview of speaking in language teaching and learning 1.3.1 The nature of speaking in oral communication Brown and Yule (1983) begin their discussion on the nature of spoken language by distinguishing between spoken and written language They point out that for most of its history; language teaching has been concerned with the teaching of written language This language is characterized by well-formed sentences which are integrated into a highly structured paragraph Spoken language, on the other hand, consists of short, often fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciations There are often many repetitions and overlap between one speaker and another Brown and Yule point that the loosely organized syntax, the use of nonspecific words, phrases and the use of fillers such as well, oh, huh make spoken language feel less conceptually dense than other types of language such as expository prose Brown and Yule also draw a useful distinction between two basic language functions These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of a social relationship The interactional nature of spoken language is examined by Bygate (1987) He distinguishes between motorperceptive skills, which are concerned with correctly using the sounds and structures of the language, and the purpose of the communication Motor-perceptive skills are developed in the language classroom through activities such as model dialogues, pattern practice, and oral drills and so on Until recently, it was assumed that the mastery of motorperceptive skills was all that one needed in order to communicate successfully Another basic distinction is considered the development of speaking skills between monologue and dialogue The ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation is quite distinct from interpersonal purposes (David Nunan, 1989: 26-27) A teacher can apply two approaches to the teaching of speaking skill- a bottom-up approach and a top-down approach The bottom-up approach suggests that a teacher can start with the smallest units of language, that is individual sounds, and move through the mastery of words and sentences to discourse The top-down view, on the other hand, suggests that a teacher can start with larger chunks of language, which are embedded in meaningful contexts, and use our knowledge of these contexts to comprehend and use correctly the smaller elements of language (David Nunan, 1989: 32) Communication is said to be the most important skill for human survival because one needs it to maintain contact with the world It is true that one communicates all the time, knowingly or unknowingly Of course, Oral Communication is a two-way process between the speaker and the receiver, involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (listening) Apart from the speaker and the receiver, there are many elements involved in the process of communication And all of them are equally important in communication i A source ii Stimuli received from that source iii A receiver iv Sensory receptors v The receivers‟ interpretation of and responses to the sensations vi Noise vii Feedback viii Situation or context Communication, generally, is described as a process But it is a process of processes because it involves many processes for example receiving sensation, interpretation of the received sensation and responding to interpretations Another important aspect of communication is the nonverbal behaviour During communication, the gestures, facial expression, and body movements naturally influence both the speaker and the receiver And nonverbal behaviour does send meaning with the verbal message Spoken language production (similar to the processing of written language) involves three main phases of language processing (Levelt, 1989; Poulesse, 1997; Scovel, 1998) The first is a conceptualization of the message content, whether at the content, of a short message or the content of a longer turn or sequence of turns The second phase involves selecting a proper linguistic formula for the message The third phase involves the articulation of the message Normally the third phase works smoothly and can often be difficult to distinguish Dr Areena Ali 125 However, there are times when each phase can cause problems During the conceptualization phase, a speaker can give someone an appropriate message or convey an inappropriate intention At the formulation phase, the speaker can choose the wrong word or expression to send an appropriate intention At the articulation phase, a speaker can mispronounce words The fact that speakers routinely self-correct these different types of error implies that monitoring and self-correction must be further aspects of the production process Finally speaking involves adjusting one's speech to the interlocutor This occurs in the patterns and types of turns that speakers use, as well as in their phases (Michael Byram, 2004:564) In second language speech, these processes can function differently from first language speech; they are commonly slower and more prone to errors in all phases of the process, therefore requiring more frequent selfcorrection Speakers are also commonly unsure of what message to convey or how to convey it, resulting in the use of communication strategies (Kasper & Kallerman, 1997) to improvise what to say and how to say it Finally, it is communication for second language speakers to have difficulty coping with the demands of managing social interaction Here, too, in a second language, speakers find themselves having to improvise ways of communicating and of responding to their interlocutors (Michael Byram, 2004:564) Bygate (1987:5) points out that speaking involves two different types of basic skills, lower level motorperceptive skills, such as how to produce phonemes or use irregular verb forms, and the decisions and strategies used in communication such as what to say, how to say it (considering the conditioning factors of the context as is dealt with in pragmatics) and what to if problems arise to negotiate to mean (Jane Arnold) 1.3.2 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning • It has the distinct advantage of being quick and prompt It provides the opportunity to both the transmitter and receiver of the message to respond directly • Oral communication promotes close contact and thus promotes the mutual exchange of thoughts, information, understanding, and support • Oral communication through direct contact undeniably inculcates a sense of self-importance in the subordinates, which successively acts as an inspiring element • It also helps in bringing a responsive and encouraging morale among employees of an organization • Oral communication further allows the superior to make a rapid evaluation of subordinates action as well as reaction to any message transmitted This obviously assists the superior to diminish and prevent differences and revamp plans and policies according to the need of time and conditions • It is faster, direct and can have more impact on the receiver One can seek clarification almost instantly by recognizing the tone of the speaker The ability to speak effectively to others in formal and informal settings is commonly regarded as something inborn („the gift of the gab‟), rather than something that can be learned Some abilities are to the extent inborn, but most of them can be acquired and improved with effort (Baden Eunson, 2005: 305) One cannot learn English without practicing Speaking helps in expressing ideas, thoughts, messages easily and freely Majority of people wants to learn English only for speaking purpose Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as „speakers‟ of that language (Penny, 1991:120) Speaking is active, productive and makes use of the aural medium Communication through speaking is commonly performed face-to-face interaction and occurs as part of a dialogue or the other form of verbal exchange Speaking is a part of the reciprocal exchange in which both reception and production play a part Therefore, the skill of speaking involves both receptive and productive participation The act of speaking involves not only the production of sounds but also the use of gesture, the movements of the muscles of the face, and indeed the whole body All these non-vocal accompaniments of speaking as a communicative activity are transmitted through the visual medium 1.3.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson 1.3.3.1 High learner’s talking time As much as possible period of time allotted to the activity occupied by students talk This is obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talks or pauses It means the students must be active to speak with their friends as mush as possible It is very clear that the students are busy, but they seldom spent their time to talk with their teacher 1.3.3.2 High motivation Classroom discussion is not dominated by a monitory of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed It means that Chapter 2: Research methods 2.1 The context of the study Over the past few decades, the teaching of English has changed dramatically in the context of foreign language communication Training learners so they can use English for communication purposes has become the goal of teaching foreign languages To use English effectively, learners need to develop communication skills That is why they need to help develop four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing However, in those skills, English learners seem to have the most difficulty speaking English Students tend to follow the traditional approach, focusing on writing and grammar skills The weakness of the traditional method is to go against the link between Listening, Speaking and Reading and Writing English: being able to write the correct sentence structure when spoken correctly will be able to write sentence structure, conversely, if it is written in English but not sure then The above-mentioned learning method has led to a limited learning process, most students still have a lot of difficulties in expressing English From the author's observation, academic success depends on many different factors, but the most important is probably the motivation of learning, learning attitudes and learning strategies Because of this, I urge the author to learn and apply social activities during speaking time so that students feel comfortable and enthusiastic when participating in class 2.2 Research questions The study made great efforts to seek the answers to the two following questions: 1) What is the actual teaching and learning of English in spoken classes of 9th grade students at Hung Binh Secondary School? (2) What are the benefits and challenges of applying communication activities in speaking lessons? 2.3 Research subjects There were 162 9th grade students at Hung Binh Secondary School participating in the study Among them, 154 students did the questions and other students participated in the interviews 2.4 Data collection tool During the study, three research methods were used: observations, questionnaires, and interviews Observe Methods of observation include systematically tracking people and recording their actions by sound, images or text providing researchers with rich and authentic data Observation is the most basic research technique we can use in the classroom (Miller, 2004) It can be used to cross-mark data from future questionnaires For these reasons, classroom observations are the first method to be implemented in this study The researcher attended a phase of an English class to get an overview of teaching and learning English at Hung Binh Secondary School The English speaking phase is the previous stage with the purpose of finding out some information related to communication activities That is: whether or not the communication activities are applied in English speaking lessons, if they are applied correctly and effectively, and how students participate in the lessons The main communication activities used were also explored by observation To prevent students from preparing themselves, the exact goals of classroom observations are not disclosed to them Table of questions A questionnaire is a research tool that includes a series of questions and other suggestions for the purpose of collecting information from findings The questionnaire has advantages over some types of surveys because they are cheap and not require much effort from the respondents They are thought to save researchers a lot of time because "They self-regulate and can be given to large groups at the same time" (Seliger & Elana, 1989) Information can be easily obtained without the presence of a researcher Moreover, these thoughts students can feel free and comfortable to answer the questions For these reasons, questionnaires were used in the study Interview Interviewing is considered a method for qualitative graduate studies that is a technique used to understand other people's experiences In this study, interviews are used to get ideas and information from students about the speaking lesson they have learned In the interview, most questions were yes / no questions with explanations Interview questions have the same content as the questionnaire They are used to collect additional information from students who have not taken questions To help students understand questions and express their ideas easily, Vietnamese is used in all both interviews 2.5 Data collection process The study was conducted as follows: - Researcher finds information about 9th grade English students for the first time at the school - Researcher attended a speaking class to get an overview of teaching and learning to speak English at school - The researcher contacted the students of the four 9th grade classes and told them the purpose of the questionnaire Then, 314 first and second questionnaires were sent to students of the four classes The researchers took back the questions the next day - The researcher contacted fourth graders and interviewed students per class - Researchers summarize the results from class observations, questionnaires and interviews Chapter 3: Analyze data, discuss drawn conclusions and suggestions 3.1 Data analysis The questions were sent to 162 students in grade 11 (equivalent to 314 questions) but the number of questions collected was only 257 Some students did not cooperate with the researcher and were not willing to return the questionnaire ask the researcher The figures below show more clearly the stude Figure 3.1 Students ’attitude toward speaking lessons It is clear that most students (110 students - more than 80 percent) at Hung Binh Secondary School prefer to learn English speaking lessons Only over 10 percent of students don't like it This means that they have a certain interest in learning speaking skills Figur e 3.2 showed the students’ participation in speaking activities It evidenced how well the students reacted to some activities Some activities required them to move far away from their seat; and only nearly 40 percent – 46 students liked that They liked to move to talk with other friends The majority did not More than 60 percent – 84 students did not like to move It meant that they just liked to stay at their seat and talk to old partners Results from interviews The interviews were done in the cooperation of 10 students Do you like the speaking lesson? Why? Why not? Of the ten students interviewed, nine answered Yes Yes They all say they like to speak lessons because they can practice speaking English with their friends Only one student spoke No, and his reason was that his English was not very good, so he did not feel confident speaking English Do you enjoy speaking topics in textbooks? Why? Why not? For this question, they shared the same thought They all said they only liked topics that were familiar to them like Hobbies, A Party and Entertainment They were not like topics like conquering space and Nature in danger The more familiar the topics, the more they like them The reason is that they may have enough vocabulary and interest in topics Does your teacher often use Vietnamese in speaking lessons? Their answer to this question is no line They say their teachers use English more often than Vietnamese (more than 70 percent) In cases where teachers know the students are not sure what they explain in Vietnamese Do you often use Vietnamese in speaking lessons? For this question, all answers are Yes Yes Due to a lack of vocabulary, they often discuss topics in Vietnamese then ask teachers how to speak ideas in English They even talk about topics or something outside the topics in Vietnamese when they complete the practice at the teacher's request What kind of class arrangement your teachers use, work in groups or work in groups? Which one you like? The answers are job pairs They said teachers let them work in pairs more often in groups and they also liked working in pairs In fact, they say, teachers only ask them to work with a friend next to them and not others When researchers asked whether they would like to talk to other people, they all said Yes Yes, and the reason was that they could exchange more ideas and not get bored Does your teacher often use activities such as games, discussions, role plays and classroom surveys? Do you like your teacher to use those activities more often in speaking lessons? Why? Why not? The answers are seldom used, except for games Compared to the other two, discussions were used more often Students also expressed that they prefer their teachers to use those activities in speaking lessons, which makes the lessons more interesting and they feel more excited in the lessons Among the ten students, one said that he did not like those activities He thinks they take a lot of his time and his friends and he speaks in Vietnamese rather than English in activities Do you enjoy moving in some of the above activities? Why? Why not? Ten students all speak Yes They expressed that they enjoy moving and talking with other friends, not just the person next to them Talking to others can help them exchange more ideas, and also make them feel more engaging about the lessons Do you make noise in speaking? All the answers are yes They further explain that whenever they complete the practice to speak topics, they will talk about something inside and even outside the lessons, and often they speak in Vietnamese The people who make the classroom very noisy Does your teacher correct your mistakes immediately when you are practicing speaking? Or will he / she fix it later, for the whole class? All answers are the second option They say teachers let them speak naturally If they make a mistake, their teacher will correct it later, making the whole class a common mistake 10 Do you spend time preparing speaking lessons at home? How much time did you spend? All answers to this question are no Ten students all said they did not spend time preparing for the speaking lesson They explained that they did not need to prepare anything In lessons, teachers will help them with vocabulary and structure so they can say something about the topic They used the time for other objects instead Results from classroom observations, questionnaires, and interviews all show that communication activities are not applicable in English-speaking classes Some roleplaying activities are used, but they are not applied as real communication activities Do you like the speaking lesson? Why? Why not? Of the ten students interviewed, nine answered Yes Yes They all say they like to speak lessons because they can practice speaking English with their friends Only one student spoke No, and his reason was that his English was not very good, so he did not feel confident speaking English Do you enjoy speaking topics in textbooks? Why? Why not? For this question, they shared the same thought They all said they only liked topics that were familiar to them like Hobbies, A Party and Entertainment They were not like topics like conquering space and Nature in danger The more familiar the topics, the more they like them The reason is that they may have enough vocabulary and interest in topics Does your teacher often use Vietnamese in speaking lessons? Their answer to this question is no line They say their teachers use English more often than Vietnamese (more than 70 percent) In cases where teachers know the students are not sure what they explain in Vietnamese Do you often use Vietnamese in speaking lessons? For this question, all answers are Yes Yes Due to a lack of vocabulary, they often discuss topics in Vietnamese then ask teachers how to speak ideas in English They even talk about topics or something outside the topics in Vietnamese when they complete the practice at the teacher's request What kind of class arrangement your teachers use, work in groups or work in groups? Which one you like? The answers are job pairs They said teachers let them work in pairs more often in groups and they also liked working in pairs In fact, they say, teachers only ask them to work with a friend next to them and not others When researchers asked whether they would like to talk to other people, they all said Yes Yes, and the reason was that they could exchange more ideas and not get bored Does your teacher often use activities such as games, discussions, role plays and classroom surveys? Do you like your teacher to use those activities more often in speaking lessons? Why? Why not? The answers are seldom used, except for games Compared to the other two, discussions were used more often Students also expressed that they prefer their teachers to use those activities in speaking lessons, which makes the lessons more interesting and they feel more excited in the lessons Among the ten students, one said that he did not like those activities He thinks they take a lot of his time and his friends and he speaks in Vietnamese rather than English in activities Do you enjoy moving in some of the above activities? Why? Why not? Ten students all speak Yes They expressed that they enjoy moving and talking with other friends, not just the person next to them Talking to others can help them exchange more ideas, and also make them feel more engaging about the lessons Do you make noise in speaking? All the answers are yes They further explain that whenever they complete the practice to speak topics, they will talk about something inside and even outside the lessons, and often they speak in Vietnamese The people who make the classroom very noisy Does your teacher correct your mistakes immediately when you are practicing speaking? Or will he / she fix it later, for the whole class? All answers are the second option They say teachers let them speak naturally If they make a mistake, their teacher will correct it later, making the whole class a common mistake 10 Do you spend time preparing speaking lessons at home? How much time did you spend? All answers to this question are no Ten students all said they did not spend time preparing for the speaking lesson They explained that they did not need to prepare anything In lessons, teachers will help them with vocabulary and structure so they can say something about the topic They used the time for other objects instead Results from classroom observations, questionnaires, and interviews all show that communication activities are not applicable in English-speaking classes Some roleplaying activities are used, but they are not applied as real communication activities 3.2 Discuss the conclusions For students who learn to speak, the research results also suggest some strengths and weaknesses The most important factor affecting the success of lessons is student interest 9th grade students at Hung Binh High School mostly like speaking lessons During these periods, they also tried to speak in English Besides, many weaknesses have been identified The first is about the topics Students mainly like to talk about topics that are familiar to their lives While there are many topics related to some areas it is strange for them This is also the reason why there are still a number of students who say that they not like to study speech Second, the problem appears during practice Not all students focus on the lessons Their use of English during this period is limited Having the opportunity to talk to others, they often use this time to talk about things outside the topic in Vietnamese They not only make noise but also waste time, affecting the lesson a lot Another weakness arising from the questionnaire, interview and the time of trial teaching is the limitation of students in moving in communication activities According to observations, the number of students are not willing to move in the activities No preparation for lessons is also a factor that enlightens students' learning That is all that students learn and practice in English from this research 3.3 Types of communication activities to improve speaking skills for students To improve students’ talking, speaking topics should be considered For what topics the students were not familiar and might lack of vocabulary to talk, the teacher could use topics outside as they had done and provided students with vocabulary related to the topics to help students speak more in English Besides, the teachers might change tasks in textbook into activities requiring more interactions Communicative activities should be used, which helped students to be familiar from the start, even time was only enough for one activity Gradually, they were accustomed to the activities and willing to join The setting of the class prevented students from taking part in some activities; therefore, suitable kinds of class arrangement should be used to overcome this difficulty PART C: CONCLUSION Concluding remarks Studying the actual survey of learning English in the classroom of grade of Hung Binh Secondary School In addition, it has found certain benefits and challenges when applying communication activities in the speaking lessons of these classes By summarizing and analyzing classroom observations, questionnaires, interviews, the results show that teaching and learning English speaking skills at school has certain strengths and weaknesses that come from both teachers and student We are prospective teachers who are interested in teaching and learning, the teacher's lesson plan and classroom control, student preparation and participation In an effort to conduct various methods of research, the research explores the benefits and difficulties of applying the communication to 9th grade students in the school class Suggestions for further research Given the limitations mentioned, the researchers hope that they will help other researchers have some useful experience in their other related studies Researchers should observe more English-speaking classes taught by junior high school teachers In addition, researchers should ask high school teachers to rely on communication activities to improve speaking skills This will help students feel excited and participate in the lessons It is hoped that these suggestions will help researchers have a better strategy for their subsequent studies REFERENCES Baker, J., & Westrup, H (2003) Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language Teachers London: Continuum Belsey, N (2009) Communicative Activity in the English Classroom - A Study of Spoken English in Year Kultur, sprak, media Chaney, A.L., and T.L Burk (1998) Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8 Chaney, A.L., and T.L Burk (1998) Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-Boston: Allyn&Bacon Boonkit, K (2010) Enhancing the Development of Speaking Skills for Non- Native Speakers of English Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2010), 1305–1309 http://www.btrtesol.com/units/06developing_language_skills/6b_speaking_skill s.php https://sites.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/Best%20of %20Bilash/communicative%20activities.html https://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/communicative-language-teachingcommunicative-approach/ https://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/communicative-language-teaching- communicative-approach/ APPENDICES APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree You like learning speaking lessons The speaking lessons you have learned are interesting You feel fascinated with the speaking topics in the textbook Your teacher sometimes gives you the topics outside the textbook In the speaking classes, English is spoken most of the time In the speaking classes, your teacher talks most of the time instead of you disagree (Circle your answer) 7.How often does your teacher use Vietnamese in the speaking lessons? a rarely b sometimes c usually d always 8.How often you use Vietnamese in the speaking lessons? a rarely b sometimes c usually d always 9.How much time did you spend for preparing a speaking lesson at home? a 15 minutes c 45 minutes b 30 minutes d other ……… 10 What you like best about the speaking lessons? …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE NO.2 FOR STUDENTS (Mark X for your answer) How often does your teacher use the following activities in speaking lessons? Rarely Sometimes Usually Always Games Discussions Role-plays Class surveys What other activities does your teacher usually use in speaking lessons? ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree You feel more interested in the speaking lessons thanks to the activities in In speaking lessons, you usually work pairs or groups rather than individually When working in pairs or groups, you focus on the given topics in English Sometimes you talk about other topics in Vietnamese The time your teacher gives you is enough for your practice You usually not want to move in some activities disagree 26 ... factors affecting teaching and learning English speaking skills in grade of Hung Binh Secondary School + Suggest types of communication activities to improve English speaking skills for students Scope...that help students improve their speaking skills Detail: + Learn about the situation of teaching and learning English speaking skills in grade of Hung Binh Secondary School + Identify factors... percent) at Hung Binh Secondary School prefer to learn English speaking lessons Only over 10 percent of students don't like it This means that they have a certain interest in learning speaking skills