A study on using picture stories in speaking class to motivate eighth grade pupils at luong the vinh junior secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************************* HOÀNG LỆ THỦY A STUDY ON USING PICTURE STORIES IN SPEAKING CLASS TO MOTIVATE EIGHTH- GRADE PUPILS AT LUONG THE VINH JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng truyện tranh tiết học nói nhằm gây hứng thú cho học sinh lớp trường THCS Lương Thế Vinh MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************************* HOÀNG LỆ THỦY A STUDY ON USING PICTURE STORIES IN SPEAKING CLASS TO MOTIVATE EIGHTH- GRADE PUPILS AT LUONG THE VINH JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng truyện tranh học nói nhằm gây hứng thú cho học sinh lớp trường THCS Lương Thế Vinh MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Khoa Anh Việt, M.A Hanoi, 2010 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF TABLES, AND CHARTS …………………………………………….viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Motivation 2.2 Motivate adolescent learners 2.3 Picture stories 2.4 Why picture stories 2.5 Previous studies 10 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 11 3.1 Participants 11 3.1.1 Population 11 3.1.2 Sampling 12 3.2 Instruments 13 3.2.1 Questionnaire for pupils 13 3.2.2 Questionnaire for teachers 14 3.2.3 Piloting 14 3.3 Data collection procedures 14 3.4 Data analysis procedures 15 vii CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF RESULTS 17 4.1 Students’ attitudes toward the use of picture stories in their speaking lessons 17 4.2 Students’ involvement in the class 21 4.2.1 Students’ confidence in class using picture stories 21 4.2.1 The atmosphere in speaking classes using picture stories 22 4.2.3 Students’ involvement in activities exploited from picture stories 22 4.2.4 Favorite topics 23 4.2.5 Favorite activities in speaking class using picture stories 24 4.3 Students’ difficulties in speaking lessons using picture stories 25 4.4 Teachers’ evaluation on the effectiveness of picture stories in speaking lessons .26 4.5 Difficulties in teaching English using picture stories 31 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 33 5.1 Findings and discussion 33 5.2 Recommendation 34 5.3 Limitation 35 5.4 Conclusion 35 5.5 Suggestion for further studies 35 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………37 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………… Appendix 1: The questionnaire for pupils I Appendix 2: The questionnaire for teachers II Appendix 3: Pupils’ scoring on the questionnaires III Appendix 4: Teachers’ scoring on the questionnaires IV viii LIST OF TABLES, AND CHARTS I Tables Table 1: Pupils’ profile 13 Table 2: Pupils’ rank on the activities in accordance to their interest 24 Table 3: Teachers’ rank on the activities according to their students’ interest 29 Table 4: Teachers’ evaluation on the effectiveness of picture stories 30 II Charts Chart 1: Students’ interest in picture stories reading 17 Chart 2: Students’ attitude toward the use of picture stories in speaking lessons 18 Chart 3: Students’ perception of picture stories in English 19 Chart 4: Students’ ideas on learning structures and vocabulary from picture stories 20 Chart 5: Students’ confidence 21 Chart 6: The classroom atmosphere 22 Chart 7: Students’ participation in activities 22 Chart 8: Favorite topics 23 Chart 9: Students’ difficulties in speaking lessons using picture stories 25 Chart 10: Teachers’ information on the frequency of using picture stories 26 Chart 11: Teachers’ purposes of using picture stories 27 Chart 12: Teachers’ remark on students’ attitude toward the use of picture stories 28 Chart 13: Teachers’ ideas on the advantage of the usage of picture stories 30 Chart 14: Teachers’ difficulties in applying picture stories 31 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Recently, although the curriculum in Vietnam has been changed a lot, the teaching of English language fail to fulfill its goals Even after years of English learning, the learners not gain the confidence of using the language in and outside the class Their output in the language is limited to writing run-of-the-mill answers for literature chapters and producing grammatically accurate, but isolated sentences while real communication involves ideas, emotions, feelings, appropriateness and adaptability Besides, English is becoming a language of global communication To have access to information and interaction with others over the world, the useful tool for most people is English skills That is why improving students‘ speaking ability should be paid more attention, even in the low grades To achieve this goal, many teachers have applied different methods and techniques However, it is a challenging task for language teachers to establish a successful language classroom which can develop students‘ speaking skill the best Vietnamese students learn English in a non-English speaking environment, so the acquisition of English is not generally considered essential for the enhancement of their life in the community In addition, there is no oral English test in most of exams in primary and secondary schools Consequently, many students have very low motivation of speaking English Many studies have demonstrated that motivation has important role in the effectiveness of teaching and learning process Learners with high motivation tend to gain more success than unmotivated ones Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the benefits of picture stories in promoting students‘ motivation with the hope to find good teaching material for teaching speaking English The researcher hope findings from this study can be useful for other teachers and researchers 1.2 Aims of the study The purpose of this study was to investigate the usage of picture stories as a teaching strategy on pupil‘s motivation In order to achieve the aim of the study, the research questions below will be addressed: - What are the attitudes of eighth grade pupils at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School toward the use of picture stories in their speaking lessons? - Does pupils‘ involvement increase in the class using picture stories? - How teachers evaluate the effectiveness of picture stories in motivating students speaking? - What are the difficulties of using picture stories to teach speaking skill for the 8th grade pupils in Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School? 1.3 Scope of the study The study limits its scope to speaking skills and to its participants of eighth grade students at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School 1.4 Methods of the study The study used questionnaires to gather data and describe the current situation of using picture stories to motivate the th grade pupils in speaking class Survey questionnaire was used in data collection of the study due to its unprecedented efficiency in terms of researcher time, researcher effort and financial resources according to Jo and Steve (1997, cited by Nunan, 1998) Thanks to a questionnaire, the researcher could collect a huge amount of information in a short period of time and ―if the questionnaire is well – constructed, processing the data can also be fast and relatively straightforward‖ (Gillham, 2000) Moreover, three types of data including ―behavioral‖, ―factual‖ and ―attitudinal‖ which can be easily yielded through using questionnaire can provide the researcher with the information to answer the research questions about the current situation of using communicative task to enhance the speaking competence of the 10th grade students In brief, due to its great effectiveness, the researcher chose survey questionnaire as an effective method of data collecting in this study 1.5 Organization of the study The thesis is divided into six parts: Chapter introduces the research problem and rationale of the study It also states the significance, aims, scope, and methods of the study Chapter not only provides an overview of background of the study, including key concepts and theories relating to the research topic but also discusses previous studies of this field to reveal the research gap which needs filling Chapter defines the methodology applied in the study including features of the participants, context, research instruments, data collection and data analysis procedure Chapter presents the results of the research and data analysis which gives comprehensive answers to the research questions It also offers suggestions to involved participants to solve all the diagnosed problems for a higher effectiveness of elicitation Chapter summarizes significant findings, highlights contributions of the research, puts forward practical suggestions for further future research as well as addresses notable limitations CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides a detailed insight into theoretical background knowledge underlying the issues including definitions and relevant knowledge around key concepts, followed by a review of related studies in the same field 2.1.MOTIVATION Many studies have revealed that motivation is one of the major factors contributing to one‘s success in learning foreign languages According to Gardner (1985), learners with a positive attitude and high motivation towards the subject are more likely to succeed in second language learning Labonde (1982) also claimed that motivation is one of important factors which help to determine the proficiency achieve by different learners and the most successful learners will be those who have both talent and a high level of motivation for learning In educational psychology, the definition of what it is to be motivated is quite simple: ―to be motivated is to be moved to something‖ (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p 54) However, further breakdowns of the term tend to become rather complicated, especially when considering the variable facets of motivation involved in a task as complex as the socially- and culturally-bound, long-term endeavor of foreign language learning Gardner (1985), in his landmark account of a socio-educational model of language acquisition, wrote that motivation to learn a foreign language can be described as a complex of constructs, involving both effort and desire, as well as a favorable attitude toward learning the language at hand This model promoted the notion that selfidentify and identification with the foreign language community is important to the language-learning process For example, a pupil may feel he or she does not ―fit in‖ with the target language speakers (a de-motivating factor), or may want to ―fully integrate‖ and become, perhaps, completely passable as a native speaker of the language (a highly motivating factor) Where one is along this continuum is described as one‘s integrative motivation, or how much one wants to integrate with the target language community According to Gardner, another motivation pupils may posses is instrumental: they may want to learn the foreign language to achieve a practical goal, such as a job promotion or to obtain course credit (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1991) Another set of definitions stemming from research is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation — intrinsic motivation comes from the joy or pleasure derived through language learning itself, while extrinsic motivation results from the desire to obtain some particular outcome, reminiscent of Gardner‘s notion of instrumental motivation Dưrnyei and Ottó (1998) described how motivation changes over time for any given learner, and described how the flux in motivation may be related to temporal components as small as a task in the language learning classroom or as large as the flow of a foreign language course over an entire academic year According to this dynamic, process-oriented approach to motivation, in either small- or large-scale time frames, pupils‘ motivation consists of three stages: pre-actional, actional, and post-actional (Dörnyei, 2003):  Pre-actional Stage First, motivation needs to be generated According to Dörnyei (2005), the generated motivation helps the pupil select the goal or task to pursue and launches the pupil into action The pupil‘s own initial goals, values and attitudes associated with the learning process, perceived likelihood of success, and the support the pupil gets (both mental and physical) can all influence this stage of motivation  Actional Stage Next, Dörnyei (2005) wrote that at the actional stage, the motivation needs to be ―maintained and protected‖ (p 84) (by the quality of the learning experience, by the nature of the classroom environment, by teachers, peers and/or parents, or by the pupil through self-regulation) during the particular action, which may be a classroom-based task or the long-term endeavor of learning the foreign language in the classroom Dörnyei mentioned that this is especially important for classroom settings where pupils may be distracted by mitigating factors such as anxiety, competing interests (established by 35 students with stronger students Both students benefit in this situation Stronger students solidify their knowledge of English because they have to explain things to the weaker students And weaker students benefit because they get things explained to them in different ways Lastly, teachers should share resources among themselves so that they will not spend so much time on searching for new materials 5.3 Limitation Due to many restrictions in terms of time, scope of the study and the author‘s limited knowledge and experience, the drawbacks are unavoidable The subject matter of the thesis has not been researched as thoroughly and deeply as it should be What is written and investigated in the thesis is partly based on the different reference materials on the issue and partly attributes to the author‘s own knowledge in methodology Hopefully, the author would receive both critical and lenient review from the readers 5.4 Conclusion The objective of this study is to examine effects of picture stories on motivating students speaking English Findings from the study show that both pupils and teachers have positive attitudes toward the use of picture stories in the class Pupils feel selfconfident, comfortable, and more involved in the class using this type of material For teachers, they are all aware that picture stories can motivate their students effectively The researcher concluded that the use of picture stories can be effective in promoting the interest and motivation in speaking activities in English class of eighth grade students at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School 5.5 Suggestion for further studies Further researchers who wish to conduct further studies on applying picture stories in teaching English can delve into the topic by enlarging and diversifying the participants of the study Pupils of other grades can be involved to make a wider scale of target populations In such a way, the topic can be expected to produce more generalised results 36 On the other hand, apart from speaking skill, picture stories can be applied in writing, reading or even listening skill The combination of pairs, for example listening and speaking, reading and writing, can be feasible with the application of picture stories Thereby, English teaching and learning will be more interesting, effective and motivating for teachers and students Furthermore, further investigations of this field can help to find out popular implications for effective methods to improve students‘ speaking competence in Vietnam 37 REFERENCES Dang Thuy Chi (2007) Using pictures to motivate tenth graders to participate in speaking activities at Le Quy Don High School, M.A Thesis, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi Dinh Dai Ngoc (2005) Stories for teaching speaking skill to pupils at Upper Secondary Schools in Hanoi, M.A Thesis, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi Dưrnyei Z., Ottó I (1998) ―Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation‖,Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, Thames Valley University, London), pp.43-69 Dörnyei Z (2003) ―Attitudes, orientations, and motivations in language learning: Advances in theory, research, and applications‖, Language Learning 53(Supplement 1), pp.3-32 Dörnyei Z (2005) The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition Mahwah,Lawrence Erlbaum, NJ Gardner R C (1985) Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation, Edward Arnold Publisher, London Gardner R.C., MacIntyre P.D (1991) An instrumental motivation in language study: Who says it isn’t effective? Studies in second language Acquisition, Cambridge University Press, London Gillham B (2000) Developing a questionnaire Continuum rd Harmer J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching (3 Ed.) Pearson Education Ltd 2001 10 Hutchinson K (1949) ―An experiment in the use of comics as instructional material,‖ Journal of Educational Sociology, pp 236-245 11 Koenke K (1981) ―The careful use of comic books‖ Reading Teacher 12 Lalonde R.N (1982) Second language acquisition: A causal analysis Unpublished M.A.Thesis, University of Western Ontario, London 38 13 Michell D (2002) Children’s Literature An invitation to the world, Allyn & Bacon Pulisher, Boston 14 Nguyen Ngoc Tu (2005) A study on using short stories to improve the efficiency of teaching English to the first year students at Viet Nam Maritime University M.A Thesis, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi 15 Nunan D (1998) Second language teaching and learning, Heinle & Heinle, Boston 16 Richard M.R., Edward L D (2000a) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol.25, P.54-67 17 Royanti (2007) The use of English Comics to Improve Students’ Ability in Story Retelling, M.A Thesis, Semarang State University, Semarang (http://digilib.unnes.ac.id/gsdl/collect/skripsi/index/assoc/HASH01ca/4c74fd06.dir/ doc.pdf) th 18 Sutherland Z (1997) Children and Books (9 Ed.), Longman, New York 19 Sones W (1944) ―The comics and instructional method‖, Journal of Educational Sociology 18, pp 232-240 20 Ur P (1996) A course in language teaching: Practice and theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 21 Versaci R (2001) How comic books can change the way our students see literature: One teacher's perspective English Journal 91 (2), pp.61-67 I APPENDIX 1: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA (Dành cho học sinh) Bảng câu hỏi thiết kế để thu thập liệu cho nghiên cứu việc sử dụng truyện tranh để tạo động lực cho học sinh lớp trường THCS Lương Thế Vinh tiết học nói Sự giúp đỡ bạn việc trả lời câu hỏi có ý nghĩa đặc biệt quan trọng thành công nghiên cứu Tất thông tin bạn cung cấp phục vụ cho mục đích nghiên cứu, thơng tin nhân bạn giữ bí mật tuyệt đối Cảm ơn hợp tác bạn I Thông tin cá nhân: - Giới tính bạn: Nam Nữ - Bạn học tiếng Anh ……… năm AI Trả lời câu hỏi cách khoanh tròn câu trả lời bạn: (Với số câu hỏi, bạn chọn nhiều câu trả lời) Bạn có thích đọc truyện tranh khơng a Rất thích b Hơi thích c Bình thường d Khơng thích Bạn thấy học nói sử dụng truyện tranh có thú vị khơng? a Rất thú vị b Thú vị c Không thú vị d Nhàm chán Bạn có hiểu truyện tranh viết tiếng Anh không? a Rất hiểu b Hơi hiểu c Không hiểu II Bạn học nhiều cấu trúc từ vựng từ truyện tranh a Hoàn toàn tán thành b Tán thành c Không biết d Không tán thành Bạn cảm thấy tự tin tham gia hoạt động nói khai thác từ truyện tranh a Hồn tồn tán thành b Bình thường c Khơng tán thành Bạn thấy thoải mái tham gia hoạt động nói khai thác từ truyện tranh a Hồn tồn tán thành b Tán thành c Bình thường d Khơng tán thành Bạn có tích cực tham gia vào hoạt động nói khơng? a Có b Bình thường c Khơng Bạn thích giáo viên sử dụng truyện tranh chủ đề học nói? (có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời) a Cổ tích, khoa học viễn tưởng b Phiêu lưu, mạo hiểm c Cuộc sống thường ngày d Loại khác (hãy liệt kê phía dưới) III Sắp xếp hoạt động theo mức độ bạn yêu thích (đánh số thứ tự cho hoạt động, số cho hoạt động bạn yêu thích nhất) a Thảo luận nội dung truyện b Đóng kịch theo nội dung truyện c Sáng tác truyện theo chuỗi tranh có sẵn d Kể lại truyện 10 Bạn gặp khó khăn học nói sử dụng truyện tranh? (có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời) a Không hiểu truyện b Không kể lại truyện c Không thể sáng tác truyện theo chuỗi tranh giáo viên cho d Khó khăn khác Cảm ơn hợp tác nhiệt tình bạn IV APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE (For teachers) This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on using picture stories in speaking class to motivate eighth-grade students at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of this data under any circumstances Thank you very much for your kind support I Personal information: - Your gender: Nam Nữ - You have been teaching English for years th - You have been teaching English for grade students for ……… years AI Circle the most suitable answer to you In some questions, you can have more than one answer, or give your own ideas How often you use picture stories in speaking class? a Usually b Sometimes c Never You often use picture stories in speaking lessons for: a Only relaxing b Only teaching c Teaching and relaxing d Time covering Do your students like the usage of picture stories in the class?” Có, thích a Yes They like very much b Yes But sometimes they get bored c As usual d No They don’t like V In your opinion, what are the advantages of using picture stories in speaking lessons? a Motivate students b Make the classroom atmosphere less stress c Encourage co-operation through group work d Improve students’ fluency Which activities are liked most by your students? (Rank the answer, No.01 for the most) a Discussion b Drama c Create stories for given picture series d Retell the stories How you evaluate the effectiveness of the use of picture stories to motivate students in speaking class? a Very effective b Effective c Not sure d Ineffective e Counter-effective What difficulties you often have in using picture stories in speaking lessons? a Large class b Time consuming c Different levels d Difficulties in choosing suitable stories e Khó khăn khác: -Cảm ơn hợp tác nhiệt tình bạn APPENDIX 3: Questions Question Question Question Question Question Question Question Question Question VII Question 10 VIII APPENDIX 4: SCORES ON QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS Questions Question a Usually b Sometimes c Never a Relaxing only Question b Teaching only c Relaxing and d Time covering a Yes They like Question b Yes But some c As usual d No They don Question a Motivate stud b Make classroo c Encourage co d Improve stude a Discuss b Drama c Create stories series Question d Retelling stor Question a Very effective b Effective c Not sure d Ineffective e Counter-effec IX Question a Large class b Time consum c Different leve d Difficulties in e Others ... can raise learning motivation of adolescent learners at a great deal if they can create class activities and lesson materials that interest their learners In addition, learning goals and classroom... are the attitudes of eighth grade pupils at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School toward the use of picture stories in their speaking lessons? - Does pupils? ?? involvement increase in the class using. .. Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School 1.4 Methods of the study The study used questionnaires to gather data and describe the current situation of using picture stories to motivate the th grade pupils