The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders in son tay high school hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10 TH GRADERS IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI (ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT SƠN TÂY-HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Code : 601410 HANOI, 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10 TH GRADERS IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI (ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT SƠN TÂY-HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Code : 601410 Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân HANOI, 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Design of the study DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 UNDERSTANDING SPEAKING 1.1.1 Spoken language versus written language 1.1.2 Implications for teaching 1.2 TEACHING SPEAKING 1.2.1 The speaking needs and goals of language students 1.2.2 Approaches to teaching speaking 1.2.3 Principles for teaching speaking 1.3 COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 1.3.1 What are communicative activities? 1.3.2 Purposes of communicative activities 1.3.3 Types of oral communicative activities 1.3.3.1 Communication games 1.3.3.2 Songs 1.3.3.3 Discussion v 1.3.3.4 Problem solving 1.3.3.5 Simulation and role-play Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 RESEARCH SETTING 2.1.1 An overview of Son Tay High School 2.1.2 The teachers of English in Son Tay High School 2.1.3 The students in Son Tay High School 2.1.4 The current situation of English teaching and learning in Son Tay High School 2.2 RESEARCH METHODS 2.2.1 Description of the subjects 2.2.2 Data collection instruments 2.2.3 Procedures 2.2.4 Methods of data analysis Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 DATA ANALYSIS 3.1.1 Results of teachers’ survey questionnaire 3.1.2 Results of students’ survey questionnaire 3.2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.2.1 Findings from classroom observation 3.2.2 Findings from survey questionnaire 3.3 SUMMARY Chapter 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 4.2 Some considerations and suggestions on using communicative activities CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX vi Table Information about Te Table The teachers’ time o Table Kinds of communica their English teachin Table Major obstacles teac communicative activ Table Some strategies the t obstacles Table The reasons for spea Table Kinds of communica participating in Table Reasons discourage Table Some strategies the t overcome these obst vii ABBREVIATIONS TEFL : Teaching English as a Foreign Language CLT : Communicative Language Teaching EFL : English as a Foreign Language M.A : Master of Art INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study The introduction of the new textbook “English 10” into teaching at Son Tay High School in 2006 has marked real renovation in language teaching and learning from the traditional approach-grammar translation method, which only concentrates on the ability of using grammar rules precisely, to communicative approach, which focuses on communication ability Nonetheless, the teachers of English at Son Tay High School find it difficult to teach speaking successfully because of the class size, the students’ language level, and additionally, students are not acquainted with CLT Moreover, the majority of the teachers were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method, which impedes them from teaching speaking successfully even the new textbook follows the communicative approach As a teacher of English at Son Tay High School in Hanoi, I often receive similar questions from many students For example, “I can understand grammar and sentence structures well, but I feel embarrassed to talk in English” or “What should I to speak English well?” In my reality of teaching, there are a lot of students who have perfect knowledge of grammar that works wonderfully for reading and writing but cannot express themselves to the teachers On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complaints from the colleagues: “Students seem so quiet and lazy during speaking lessons It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities” Therefore, the idea of doing something useful for my colleagues and students has urged me to conduct the research Another reason why the study was carried out lies in my love for teaching speaking By doing the study, I can know more about the challenges in teaching and learning speaking skills so that I can find relevant techniques along with activities to improve my teaching speaking at Son Tay High School The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on “The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders at Son Tay High School-Hanoi” with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for Grade 10th at Son Tay High School 2 Aims of the study The aims of the study are to address the following issues:  The difficulties that teachers and students face in the process of teaching and learning speaking skills;  The application of some useful communicative activities to th improve English speaking ability for 10 graders Research questions To achieve these aims, the following two research questions are addressed: What communicative activities can make the speaking lessons more effective? What obstacles have the teachers and students faced in their speaking lessons? Scope of the study This study is concerned with the application of communicative activities to develop th speaking skills to the students in grade 10 at Son Tay High School The researcher is not planning on studying a larger population of the whole students at Son Tay High School, th just on the students in grade 10 in order to find out what communicative activities are applied and the obstacles experienced by these students and teachers of English then offer some recommendations with the hope that teaching and learning speaking skills will be improved Design of the study Apart from acknowledgement, abstract, table of contents and appendices, this thesis is structured in three main parts namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The first part “Introduction” presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope of the study and its design The second part “Development” includes four chapters Chapter 1, Theoretical Background, begins with the literature on understanding speaking, including the comparison of spoken language with written language and implication for teaching Then comes the literature on teaching speaking with the speaking needs and goals of language students, some approaches to teaching speaking and principles for teaching speaking The rest of the chapter is on communicative activities, its purposes and its different types Chapter is composed of two sections The first section presents the local situation in Son Tay High School The second section provides the research methods that involve information about the subjects, data collection instruments and procedures Also, the methods of data analysis are mentioned Chapter presents major findings and discussion Chapter gives recommendations for more effective application of Communicative Activities in developing students’ speaking skills The third part is the conclusions of the study DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 UNDERSTANDING SPEAKING 1.1.1 Spoken language versus written language Communication between humans has its own characteristics The speaker speaks and the writer writes because they want to say something and they have a communicative purpose For example they may want to give information about some special events, they may want to make a claim or they may want to argue In addition, both the speaker and the writer select the language they think is appropriate for their purpose of communication However, there are significant differences between spoken language and written language Understanding the different characteristics between the two modes of communication is very important for educators, in order to design an appropriate curriculum in teaching integrating skills and thus to promote learners' language acquisition Spoken and written language serve different social purposes, therefore they have different characteristics and have their own systematic patterns and language forms Harmer (1996), Burns (1997) and many other scholars have distinguished the different features between spoken and written language The first and perhaps the most obvious difference between spoken and written language is that “speech and writing are typically used in different kinds of situations” (Burns: 8) When we speak, we are usually interacting directly with others such as talking on the phone or chatting with friends in the cafe The language produced during talk is spontaneous and relatively unplanned Speakers have less time to plan than writers and they often have to produce what they want to say on the run As a consequence, speakers tend to hesitate, use more informal or everyday language, make mistakes or change the topic in the middle of the conversation Speakers use a number of linguistic devices, which are called: parataxis and hypo taxis formulaic expressions and ellipsis (Burns: 18) Harmer (1996) states that the significant different feature between spoken and written language concerns the need for accuracy and the level of accuracy Writers are usually alone and not in direct contact with the audience As a result, they not receive immediate feedback from the reader and sometimes get no feedback at all Native speakers constantly make “mistakes” when they are speaking They hesitate and say the same thing 31 data and information, the researcher has carried out an analysis to find out teachers’ and students’ attitude toward communicative activities to enhance students’ speaking skills and also the problems facing both of them when communicative activities are applied On the basis of these findings, the researcher will propose appropriate recommendations in the next chapter 32 Chapter 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Despite the difficulties mentioned above, the exploitation of various communicative activities would make the speaking lessons more interesting This chapter gives implications and recommendations based on the theoretical background, the findings from the questionnaires and the observation Some kinds of communicative activities, which will be presented according to some criteria established in the teaching implications, have proved their effectiveness In addition, some useful suggestions are also offered at the end of this chapter to ensure a smooth and successful implementation of communicative activities 4.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 4.1.1 Using song Songs can be applied at the beginning of the lesson as a warm up activity It not only takes effect when teachers want students to practice listening but also enhances students’ oral skills by asking them to retell the content of the song after listening It can be carried out in speaking and listening lesson Procedures: Teacher prepares handouts on which there is a song lyric with some gaps Students listen to the song and fill in the missing words After all the missing words are filled and checked by the teacher, students will be asked to work in groups of or and retell the content of the song Then the teacher randomly chooses students from different groups to present their opinion; the others can support their friends Example Unit 12: MUSIC Material: the song “Thank you for the music” by ABBA Time: 15 – 20 minutes Or Unit 13: FILMS AND CINEMA Material: the song “My heart will go on” Time: 15 – 20 minutes 4.1.2 Communicative games Communicative games not only provide learners with opportunities to talk but also encourage their participation and can highly motivate them in talking Furthermore, by 33 playing these games, students will use their limited English more naturally because their concentration will be on solving the problems posed by the games and not on the language they use to solve the problems There are many games for practicing speaking; however, the researcher only focuses on the game: "Spot the difference" which is considered to be the most suitable and th effective one for 10 graders to enhance their speaking skills Spot the difference Time: 12 - 15 minutes Procedure: The teacher prepares pairs of pictures The pictures in a pair should be similar but should have some differences The number of differences depends on the level of the students They work in pairs Teacher gives each pupil a picture Student A and B ask each other questions until they find the differences They must not see each other’s pictures Finally they show each other their picture and compare them Questions that students might ask are: - Is it a girl? - Is she wearing glasses? - Has she got long hair? - Is she wearing a T-shirt? This kind of game can be applied at the beginning of any lesson in the course book as a warm up activity for the students to be motivated and relaxed Thanks to a relaxed feeling, they can produce the best English 4.1.3 Role play Free role play: No prescribed structures and very few suggestions If it is necessary, the vocabulary to be used is presented The teacher simply gives students and the characters; alternatively, students come up with their own situations After an appropriate time, they deliver their presentation Semi-controlled role play: Structures or vocabulary may be suggested by the teacher, but much of the content is determined by the participants A list of utterances or only a list of words which could be used in the situation are given to students who are allowed time to prepare the role play before presenting it to the class 34 Controlled role play: This involves the use of grammatical structures and vocabulary which are controlled by a script The script offers the participants to change the tense of the verb Example Unit 7: THE MASS MEDIA Time: 20-25 minutes Procedures: Teacher follows the steps: (1) Divide the class into two sides: A will be TV viewers, B will be Reporters (2) Ask side B to make an interview to find out what programs the viewers like best (4) Tell side A choose as many programs as possible with explanations (5) Ask some of the Ss about their favorite programs T tries to find out who is the best interviewer and who is the best interviewee 4.1.4 Class discussion - Free discussion: A free discussion is an open exchange of ideas on a topic suggested by the students or based on a reading passage - Semi controlled discussion: The teacher provides the topic and an outline or list of points to be discussed, while the students produce their own language Controlled discussion: The teacher provides the topic, some of the language, and an outline or list of points to be discussed Example Unit 6: AN EXCURSION Time: 15 - 20 minutes Procedure: Teacher follows the steps: (1) Raise the topic “Going to Huong Pagoda or Water Park this weekend?” (2) Have students choose their own option (3) Form the two big groups based on the students’ choice (4) Let students in two groups debate by asking questions and supporting the ideas (5) Comment on students’ performance and make necessary corrections 35 4.1.5 Problem-solving activity A problem may be solved by students working in groups or by each student working alone In the latter case, after each student has his solution, the students may be divided into several small groups of or The task of each group is to arrive at a consensus regarding the solution to the problem, selecting a spokesperson, and formulating a rationale for the group’s decision A further possible step is to have all of the groups arrive at a consensus Here is an example for a problem-solving activity: Unit 5: TECHNOLOGY AND YOU Time: 15 minutes Procedure: Teacher asks their students to work in groups of or then introduce the topic: “Imagine that you have a close friend who plays games online a lot Decide what to to help him or her get rid of it” 4.2 Some considerations and suggestions on using communicative activities From the researcher’s own experience and the precious advice of the experienced teachers of English at Son Tay High School, some considerations and suggestions are offered on the using of communicative activities * While the students are communicating as best as they can, the teacher moves around the room, listening, and determines what the students know and not know In this way, teaching is designed to meet actual needs of the students Furthermore, a close attention to students may help teachers restrict the use of mother tongue in doing the activities * The teacher should not correct grammar during a communicative activity As a matter of fact, communication deals with the conveying of information; hence, interrupting students to correct or call attention to errors will disturb the flow and inhibit the speaker In addition, assessment should focus on whether information has been successfully conveyed or not * It is not suggested that teacher’s correction for accuracy is eliminated It may well happen when a student succeeds in getting a message across However, teacher’s correction should be given at some other stages and not during the communicative activity 36 * Last but not least, communicative activities should be done in pairs or groups, which help to increase cooperativeness among students In order to avoid the situation in which the good-at-speaking students tended to dominate the speaking activities in and the weak students often depended too much on those who learned better their groups work, it is advisable for teachers to randomly call representatives to come in front or even create more chances for these passive learners to express their ideas in English In short, this chapter, on the basis of the findings reported in the previous chapter, suggests some kinds of communicative activities with designed samples which can be applied for the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” in order to enhance students’ oral communication Together with some suggestions and considerations for using these activities, the researcher hopes to provide teachers with some basic steps in applying communicative activities in the process of teaching and learning 37 CONCLUSION It has been seen that the responsibility to develop students’ speaking skills in teaching and learning a foreign language lies mainly with teachers However, success in speaking should be the result of both teachers and students Communicative ability, especially oral communicative ability is very complex But if it is taught and practiced effectively, it can help students develop a sense of progress necessary to keep their motivation levels high When teaching and learning speaking skills, both teachers and students first of all have to understand clearly the nature of spoken language and its characteristics As it has been shown in Chapter 1, this understanding is very important for language teachers to have an appropriate approach to teaching reproductive skills The EFL teachers should also take into account some important factors in order to assist EFL students’ speaking skills To make a speaking lesson successful, teachers should understand well the speaking needs and goals of students, as decisions about teaching speaking will inevitably depend on the learners’ goals and their needs in developing speaking skills; they should be aware of some main approaches to teaching speaking, and especially should observe the principles for teaching speaking In the era of communicative language teaching, every teacher should keep in mind the word “interaction” as “the key to teaching language for communication” (Rivers, 1987: 17) or “the heart of communication, it is what communication is all about” (Brown, 1990: 159) According to Brown, theories of communicative competence emphasize the importance of interaction as human being use language in various contexts to “negotiate” meaning, or simply stated, to get one idea out of your head and into the head of another person and vice versa He has also indicated that from the very beginning of language study, classroom should be interactive, and this is well done with the help of communicative activities The most important thing to be remembered is that communicative activities always give students both the desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of language Such activities are vital in a language classroom since here the students can “do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree of language autonomy” (Harmer, 1991: 51) 38 This research study has shown the role of communicative activities in developing students’ speaking skill and the ways that teachers can help students to be more and more able to speak well in their speaking lessons As language teachers, we should help our students to see that “language learning is not a skill where we can simply bone up on rules and words in isolation”, and that “language is for communicating with people (whether through oral or written modes) and the more they engage in such face to face communication, the more their overall communicative competence will improve” (Brown, 1990: 177) Therefore, to understand well the teachers’ role in language teaching in general and in teaching speaking in particular is very essential and crucial In conclusion, I would like to say that this research study, like any others on the topic, is no more than a small chapter in a story that has no end It may present only some useful information for the successful application of the communicative activities in teaching English in Son Tay High School However, it is hoped that this study can provide the teachers, especially teachers in Son Tay High School and in other high schools in Vietnam, some practical use 39 REFERENCES Brown, H.D (1990) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to language Pedagogy Prentice Hall Regents San Francisco State University Burns, A (1997) Focus on Speaking Sydney, Macquarie University Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford University Press Byrne, D (1987) Techniques for Classroom Interaction Longman London-New York Canale, M & Swain, M (1980) Approaches to Communicative Competence SEAMO Regional Language Centre D’Arbon, T Frawley, J Fasoli, L & Ober, R (2008) Metaphor workshops as a means of identifying special features of educational leadership and remote indigenous communities Presentation at ACEL 2008 Conference Melbourne: ACEL Eken, D.K (1996) Ideas for Using Pop Songs in the Language Classroom English Teaching Forum, 34, 46-47 Harmer, J (1983) The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong, Nguyen Quoc Tuan (2006) Tieng Anh 10 Hanoi: Educational Publishing House Ladousse, P (1987) Role play Resource Book for Teachers Oxford University Press Littlewood, W (1990) Communicative language Teaching An Introduction Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1992) Teaching Oral Communication A Methodological Framework Blackwell Nambiar, S.A (1985) Suffer Students to Speak Guidelines, Vol XII No 2, December Nation, P (1991) Managing Group Discussion: Problem-solving tasks, Guidelines, 13, 2, 1-10 Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge University Press 40 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for the Teacher E.L.T Prentice Hall Quan, Nguyen Hai (2004) Learning to Use Songs to Teach Grammar Teacher’s Edition, 14, 57 Richard, J.C & Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP Rivers, W.M (1983) Communicating Naturally in Second Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP Rivers, W.M (1987) Interactive Language Teaching Cambridge Language Teaching Library Sheils, J (1993) Communication in the Modern Language Classroom Council of Europe Press I APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders in Son Tay High School-Hanoi” Your assistance in filling the following items is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you Please write down some information about yourself Your age: ………………………………… Sex: ……………………………………… Years of learning English: ………………… Please tick (√) where appropriate or write in brief where necessary (You can choose more than one answer to some questions) How often you speak English in class? a Very often b Sometimes c Rarely You speak English when a You talk with your friends b Your teacher asks you c You are interested in the topic and activities What kinds of communicative activities you like to participate in your class? (more than one option is possible) a Discussion b Songs c Problem solving d Role play e Communicative games f Others: ………………………………………………………………………… How you like the activities? a Very much b Not much c Not at all What forms of the activity you like to take part in? II a The whole class work b Groups work c Pairs work d Individual work What is the effectiveness of practicing the activities for you? a You can speak more fluently b You feel more confident c You have chance to practice English d You are more interested in learning English e Your English is much improved f Others: What reasons discourage you from speaking English in class? a Being fearful of losing face b.Being worried about making mistakes c Being not accustomed to speaking English d.Having low English proficiency What does your teacher often to stimulate you to speak? a Encourages you by grades b Gives you praise and encouragement c Applies several extra activities outside the textbook (e.g songs, communicative, games, role play ) d Tries to finish what is required in school curriculum Thank you very much for your cooperation!!! III APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders in Son Tay High School-Hanoi” Your assistance in filling the following items is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you Please write down some information about yourself Your age: ………………………………… Sex: ……………………………………… Years of teaching English: ………………… Please tick (√) where appropriate or write in brief where necessary (You can choose more than one answer to some questions) Have you ever been trained in Communicative Language Teaching? (Please choose one answer) a Yes, in English teaching -training courses b Yes, in English teaching workshops c.Others d No, I have never been trained in CL T When you usually use communicative activities? a.at the beginning of the lesson b during the lesson c.at the end of the lesson d out of the class time What kinds of communicative activities you usually use in your English teaching process? a Discussion b Songs c Problem solving d Role play e Communicative games IV f Others: …………………………………………………………………… What difficulties you meet when carrying out the communicative activities? In terms of students’ side a learners often keep quiet and only speak when they are asked b learners are too shy to speak in front of the class c learners are not interested in the topic In terms of your own side a it’s difficult to organize b.it takes too much time to make a lesson plan In terms of objective factors a lack of materials b.size of class c time allocation d.atmosphere in class Other difficulties that you face: (please be specific) ………………………………………………………… In order to motivate your students to speak English what you often do? a Encouraging them by grades b Giving them praise and encouragement c Applying several extra activities outside the textbook d.Trying to finish what is required in school curriculum Thank you very much for your cooperation!!! V APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST Date: Teacher: Unit: Class: No of students: Materials: Activity: * Observation Students’ level of participation in speaking activities Students’ interaction with the teacher and other partners Students’ attitudes towards speaking activities Teacher’s teaching techniques & speaking activities Classroom learning atmosphere * Comment: ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………… ... th graders at Son Tay High School- Hanoi? ?? with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for Grade 10th at Son Tay High School 2 Aims of the. .. activities to improve my teaching speaking at Son Tay High School The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on ? ?The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for. .. SETTING 2.1.1 An overview of Son Tay High School 2.1.2 The teachers of English in Son Tay High School 2.1.3 The students in Son Tay High School 2.1.4 The current situation of English teaching