A comparative analysis among several types of communicative activities to reduce pre intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking english at ha noi foreign language teaching center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE *** *** DƯƠNG THỊ NHÀN A Comparative Analysis among Several Types of Communicative Activities to Reduce Pre-Intermediate Level Learners' Anxiety in Speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center Phân tích so sánh số hoạt động giao tiếp nhằm làm giảm lo lắng người học nói tiếng Anh trung tâm Anh ngữ sư phạm Hà Nội M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Code: English Methodology 60.14.10 HÀ NỘI – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE *** *** DƯƠNG THỊ NHÀN A Comparative Analysis among Several Types of Communicative Activities to Reduce Pre-Intermediate Level Learners' Anxiety in Speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center Phân tích so sánh số hoạt động giao tiếp nhằm làm giảm lo lắng người học nói tiếng Anh trung tâm Anh ngữ sư phạm Hà Nội M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Code: Supervisor: English Methodology 60.14.10 Nguyễn Thu Lệ Hằng, M.A HÀ NỘI – 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… i Abstract……………………………………………………………………………… .ii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………iii List of Tables and Charts………………………………………………………………………vi List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………… vi PART ONE: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale of the Study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Research questions 1.6 Design of the study 1.7 Definitions of Terms PAT TWO: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………………….5 Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………… 1.1 Overview of Communicative Language Teaching 1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety 1.2.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Anxiety 1.2.2 Possible Sources of Foreign Language Anxiety 1.2.3 Effects of Foreign Language Anxiety in Language Learning 1.3 Communication Activities 10 1.3.1 Definitions of Communicative Activities 11 1.3.2 Benefits of Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking English 11 1.3.3 Some Types of Communicative Activities 12 1.3.3.1 Role – Play 13 1.3.3.2 Information – Gap 14 1.3.3.3 Discussion 14 v 1.3.4 Using Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking English………………………………………………………………………………… 15 1.3.5 Summary 16 Chapter II: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………… 18 2.1 Research methods 18 2.1.1 Rationale for Action Research 18 2.1.2 Questionnaire Survey 19 2.1.3 Observational Method 20 2.2 Research Design 21 2.2.1 Action Research Procedure 21 2.2.2 Subjects of the Study 23 2.3 Summary 23 Chapter III: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS……………………………… 25 3.1 Pre-action research survey 25 3.1.1 Classroom observation 25 3.1.2 The Pre- Questionnaire 27 3.2 Action plan implementation 30 3.2.1 Role-play activities 30 3.2.1.1 Samples of role-plays 31 3.2.1.2 Procedure of a role-play activity 31 3.2.1.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 32 3.2.1.4 Findings and Notice 33 3.2.2 Information gap activities 33 3.2.2.1 Sample information gap activities 33 3.2.2.2 Procedure of an information gap activity 34 3.2.2.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 34 3.2.2.4 Findings and Notice 35 3.2.3 Discussion activities 35 3.2.3.1 Sample discussion activities 35 vi 3.2.3.2 Procedure of a discussion activity 36 3.2.3.3 Reflection on implementing the activity 36 3.2.3.4 Findings and Notice 37 3.3 Observation Results 37 3.4 Post action research survey 39 3.5 A Comparative Analysis of Some Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking English 42 3.6 Summary 43 PART THREE: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………45 Summary of the Study 45 Limitations of the study 46 Suggestions for further research 46 References…………………………………………………………………………………….48 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………… I Appendix 1…………………………………………………………………………… .I Appendix 2…………………………………………………………………………………….III Appendix 3…………………………………………………………………………………… V Appendix 4…………………………………………………………………………………….VI Appendix 5………………………………………………………………………………… VIII Appendix 6…………………………………………………………………………………… X vii List of Tables Table 1: The causes of the learners’ anxiety in speaking English Table 2: Some communicative activities used in speaking lessons Table 3: The learners’ feeling about CA used in speaking lessons Table 4: The learners’ feelings after participating in communicative activities in speaking lessons Table 5: Effectiveness of reducing the learners’ anxiety in speaking English through communicative activities List of Charts Chart 1: I feel anxious when speaking English in class Chart 2: The learners’ participation extreme in communicative activities used in speaking lessons Chart 3: The learners’ interests in communicative activities List of Abbreviations CAs: Communicative Activities CLT: Communicative Language Teaching FL: Foreign Language AR: Action Research SD: Standard Deviation M: Mean TEMOC: Techniques that Encourage and Measure Oral Communication PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the Study Nowadays, with the development of technology and information together with the spread of globalization, English becomes a global language because it is broadly used in various fields of our life such as in technology, business, commerce, communication and so on As a result, learning English for communication skills has created a huge demand for teaching and learning English around the world The fact shows that communicative approach of teaching English is preferred in learning English Teaching English is not only on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative ability Therefore, in order to develop the learners‟ communicative ability, teachers need to create a good classroom environment which motivates their speaking activities In recent years in Vietnam, English has been playing a very important role in the development of the country firstly because it is an international language and secondly it is also seen as a mean to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries Consequently, more and more people desire to know and focus on English to keep pace with the update development in technology in the world Therefore, English is not only widely taught at schools, universities, but it also is taught at many foreign language centers as part-time classes and others In Ha Noi, there are more and more English centers established everywhere with a lot of learners Most of them are students, engineers, or workers, who come to the centers with the hope to have a good command of English to use it effectively in all four skills Regarding speaking skills, the majority of learners agree that this macro skill is always at the top of their demand for many aims such as passing oral examinations at universities, having good communications, getting good jobs, etc However, most of second language learners experience varying degrees of anxiety when asked to express their views in front of other people This is true even when their language abilities are rather good In fact, there is an excessive amount of anxiety negatively influencing many language learners‟ behaviors and educational outcomes Campbell and Ortiz (1991: 159) show that language anxiety among university students to be „alarming‟ and estimate that up to one half of all language students experience debilitating levels of language anxiety As a teacher of English in Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center for nearly two years, I have found that learners would like to speak English a lot but they lack confidence in speaking and they are usually passive and find it challenging while communicating with English-speaking people In speaking lessons, there are hardly many communicative activities for teaching speaking English used by teachers Consequently, learners are too shy or even keep silence and nothing in speaking lessons Moreover, they think that speaking English is very difficult for them and they become fed up with learning this skill In fact, the attempt to create a negotiating and students-centered learning atmosphere in English by teachers is usually unsuccessful The achievement of effective communicative teaching becomes a daily headache to all English teachers here Inevitably, the lack of learners‟ participation in speaking activities leads to the teacher-centered learning in English lessons and learners‟ anxiety in learning a second language, especially in speaking English These reasons actually drive the researcher to the study “A comparative analysis among several types of communicative activities to reduce Pre- intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center” with the aim of suggesting some communicative activities to reduce these learners‟ anxiety in speaking English 1.2 Aims of the study This study aims at suggesting some communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English and compare which activities are the most effective for them In order to achieve these aims, the following objectives are established: - Firstly, to review the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center - Secondly, to investigate the current activities used in teaching speaking English at this center - Thirdly, to suggest some communicative activities to reduce pre-intermediate level learners‟ anxiety in speaking English at this center - Fourthly, to make a comparison about which activities have effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English 1.3 Scope of the study To reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English, teachers can make use of various activities and a number of techniques should be done However, within the framework of this M.A Minor Thesis, it is too ambitious to list all communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Therefore, this research only focuses on three communicative activities (that is, role-play, discussion, and information gap) and then compares their effects on reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking classes Moreover, due to the limit of time, only a foreign language center in Hanoi is chosen for the research All of 20 learners chosen are studying in a Pre-intermediate level class 1.4 Methods of the study In order to complete this research, qualitative method will be used The participants of the study are the learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center More specifically, the researcher planned classroom observations and did questionnaires consisting of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire to gather in-depth information about the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skills and which communicative activities used in their speaking lessons It is believed this method will bring about a complete look into this research 1.5 Research questions The study is to apply some communicative activities and compare them with the aim of finding out the most effective one to reduce learners‟ speaking anxiety at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center To achieve this aim, answers to the following questions are sought: + Which speaking activities have been used in teaching speaking skill at this center? + Which will be the most effective one, among three communicative activities-, roleplay, discussion, and information gap- to reduce Pre-intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English? 1.6 Design of the study This minor thesis consists of three main parts: Part One, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, methods, design of the study, and definitions of terms Part Two, DEVELOPMENT, is composed of four chapters as follows: - Chapter One, Literature review, is concerned with a brief review of knowledge about overview of communicative language teaching, foreign language anxiety, communicative activities and benefits of using communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English - Chapter Two, Methodology, is about the research method, research design, data analysis and the rationale for using five activities - Chapter Three, Data Presentation and Analysis, is the part relating to pre- action research survey, action plan implementation, observation results, post-action research survey, and a comparative analysis of communicative activities to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Part Three, CONCLUSION, consists of four sub-parts: Summary of the study, Limitations of the study, and Suggestions for further studies 1.7 Definitions of Terms - Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): CLT is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” - Foreign language anxiety: This is considered as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” - Communicative activities (CA): include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the community These communicative activities contain a communicative purpose in any situations and a concentration on language content not language form and communication without teachers‟ interference - Action research (AR): is the first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is being carried out - Comparative analysis: This term refers to comparing two or more things to get some certain results 41 When investigating on the extreme the learners took part in communicative activities in speaking lessons, most of the learners (70%) answered that they often joined in the activities 25% of them confessed that they were always involved in communicative activities Only 5% admitted that they sometimes did More interestingly, none of them gave out the answer that they never participated in CAs Question three asks the learners about their feelings on three communicative activities used in class as the chart below 18 Number of the learners 16 14 12 10 Chart 3: The learners’ interest in communicative activities For this question, the learners had to answer which communicative activities they liked in their class More specially, they could choose more than one option Results collected from the questionnaire show that discussion is the learners‟ favorite activity, which was chosen by 17 of twenty learners The second rank is role-play because 14 of twenty learners agreed that they liked it in their speaking lessons of the learners accepted that they were interested in information gap activities All this data proves that discussion activity is the most favorite one in my class Table below summarizes the learners‟ answers to question five about their feelings after taking part in communicative activities in speaking lessons Table 4: The learners’ feelings after participating in communicative activities in speaking lessons Number of the learners The percentage (%) 42 A big percentage of the learners (90%) said that after participating in communicative activities in their class, they were less anxious than before Surprisingly, two of twenty learners (10%) answered that they were more confident in their speaking English None of them expressed that they were still anxious or more To sum up, most of the learners in my class agreed that communicative activities had great effect on reducing their anxiety in speaking English They became more confident in their speaking activities They could practise English with their friends or even with the teacher anytime or at any task 3.5 A Comparative Analysis of Some Communicative Activities to Reduce Learners’ Anxiety in Speaking English In this part, the author of the study creates a comparative table about three communicative activities to find out which one is the most effective to reduce the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English To make a specific comparison about three communicative activities used in speaking lessons to reduce the learners‟ anxiety in my class, I design the table below in details Table 5: Effectiveness of reducing the learners’ anxiety in speaking English through communicative activities Communicative Activities Role-Play Information Gap Discussion N = Numbers of the learners; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation From the table above, we can see that the questionnaires were delivered to the same number of the learners with all three communicative activities The Mean for three activities are the same (4) However, when referring to Standard Deviation (SD), the difference is shown more clearly Most of them agreed that discussion were of a great effect in reducing their speaking skill (60%) 35% of the learners stated that discussion were a little effective Only 5% 43 expressed that they did not decide, and no one showed that it were not effective to reduce their speaking English The SD of this activity is quite high (4.77) This proves that the number of the learners agree that discussion greatly influence in reducing their anxiety in speaking English About the role-play activity, 45% of them confessed that role-play activity were a little effective on reducing their anxiety 30% of the learners expressed that this activity had a little effective on reducing their speaking skill However, the number of the learners confessed that they did not express whether the role play activity had good effects on reducing their anxiety in speaking English or not was 25%, which is quite high The SD 52 expresses that the dispersion of the difference from the learners‟ answers is extremely big Nevertheless, this rate is lower than that of discussion Therefore, role-play activity is less effective than discussion in reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English For the information gap, only 35% said that information gap one was very effective 20% of them said that it were a little effective More surprisingly, 15% of the learners agreed that the information gap activity did not have effects on reducing their anxiety in speaking The number 2.45 is the information gap‟s SD This figure reveals that the difference of the learners‟ answers is low; even it is the lowest among three communicative activities Most of the learners confessed that information gap hardly helps them reduce their anxiety in speaking English It can be concluded that most of the learners agree the discussion activity has the best effect on reducing their anxiety in speaking English The answers for this activity have a quite big difference with the SD of 4.77 The role-play activity ranks the second as 45% of the learners confirmed that it is very effective in reducing their anxiety The information gap one is in the last position since 15% of the learners said that it is not effective in reducing their anxiety in speaking English 3.6 Summary Chapter three describes and discusses in detail what I actually did in my study The findings of the study can be drawn out as follows: The learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center are often anxious in their speaking lessons The learners‟ opinions were revealed in the pre-questionnaire They were lack of vocabulary and structures and not confident enough to speak English in class Moreover, 44 the speaking activities used in their class were often pairs/ groups, role –plays and interviews Meanwhile, pairs and groups are used the most often in their class After implementing the action research, the information collected through observation and post questionnaires gives clear evidence that the learners are more confident and active in the communicative activities given out in their class Their favorite activity is discussion in speaking lessons Moreover, they confirm that discussion really brings about great effect on reducing their anxiety in speaking English It also proves that the author has been going in the correct direction to improve the learners‟ speaking skill at this center 45 PART THREE: CONCLUSION After doing class observations, delivering pre-questionnaire as well as implementing an action research, the researcher leads to the final part of the study, which is devoted to summary of the study, limitations, and suggestions for further study Summary of the Study English becomes an international language and is broadly used in various fields of our life Therefore, learning English for communication is very necessary for all learners and teachers in many countries, in general, and in Vietnam in particular Speaking skill is of a great importance in teaching English In fact, most of the learners in Vietnam, especially at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center, feel anxious in speaking English This has great effects on their communicative competence The study is aimed at investigating which communicative activities used in teaching speaking English at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center as well as implementing three communicative activities to reduce the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English The two questionnaires were raised to reach the aims of the study With the use of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire for twenty learners along with the observation sheets, the author of the study has collected the data to the two research questions For the first research question, “Which speaking activities have been used in teaching speaking skill at this center?”, I have found that pairs/ groups, role-plays and interviews were often used in speaking lessons Moreover, the learners were not interested, but anxious in speaking English They often kept silence during their speaking period or even passive in speaking skill After implementing three communicative activities in speaking lessons in my class at this center, I have collected some valuable information through post-questionnaires and class observations The learners become more confident in speaking English in class with three communicative activities given out in the study Most of them are active to join in speaking activities In other words, their speaking skills are much improved In order to answer the second research question, “Which will be the most effective one, among three communicative activities-, role-play, discussion, and information gap- to reduce Pre-intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English?”, the author also makes a comparative table and gets a valuable result That is, discussion activity has the 46 most effect on reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English among three communicative activities implemented in the study Limitations of the study This study inevitably has limitations due to the reliability of the findings First, the choice of subjects for this study was conducted at one class with only twenty participants in a center That is, this may focus on some samples at the center As a result, it may limit the generalization of certain conclusions drawn from the findings Second, using the questionnaires in this study may bring about some limitations The learners are asked to choose from a number of pre-prepared options instead of being asked to give their own ideas freely To a certain degree, this format might have affected and limited these learners‟ expressions of ideas concerning why they felt anxious when speaking English and which communicative activities are used in their class Third, learners‟ perceptions about English anxiety may have individual meaning developed from personal context, experience, and knowledge Therefore, the findings of the study may not be able to provide a representative picture of the entire population of learners at Ha Noi Foreign Language Center Consequently, we need to be cautious when generalizing the research findings Last, only three communicative activities are implemented in the action research, which may not lead to general results for the learners at the center Therefore, the findings of the study may be applied for only this class in the center Though the research is still a long way from perfection and there remain limitations, it is believed that this study will positively contribute to the using of some communicative activities in teaching speaking for learners not only at Ha Noi Foreign Language Centers but also at other centers with the aim of reducing learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Suggestions for further research Since no single research design is complete, this study cannot cover everything in the field of reducing the learners‟ anxiety in speaking English Many untouched issues can be interesting topics for further research such as: - Using communicative games to reduce learners‟ anxiety in speaking English - Using many communicative activities in large multilevel classes - Drawbacks of 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The Modern Language Journal, 75, 426439 ... analysis among several types of communicative activities to reduce Pre- intermediate level learners’ anxiety in speaking English at HaNoi Foreign Language Teaching Center? ?? with the aim of suggesting... picture of teachers‟ actual behavior Richards (1994:12) suggests observation is a way of gathering information about teaching, rather than a way of evaluating teaching; although generally observation... situation of teaching and learning speaking skills at Ha Noi Foreign Language Teaching Center - Secondly, to investigate the current activities used in teaching speaking English at this center -