Communicative Language Teaching approaches (CLT) have become more and more popular in recent years since the ultimate goal of language learning is to be able to effectively communicate in that language. Taskbased approach is widely known as one of the approaches influenced by CLT and has been applied in teaching both receptive and productive skills. Due to the fact that there has been little research in this field for English major students at tertiary level, this paper was conducted to investigate the application of taskbased approach for fasttrack freshmen in University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University. It is expected to offer useful information for pedagogical tasks for English teachers in general. Qualitative research design was applied to address the two research questions relating to the reasons of using taskbased approach and its application. The teachers from firstyear fasttrack classes majoring in English Language Teacher Education were chosen to join the study. Document observations, class observations and the interviews with teachers were used as data collection instruments; content analysis was the data analysis method. The findings of the study showed a number of benefits that taskbased approach could bring to students and how taskbased approach was strictly applied in Forum activity as well as how it influenced Functional Language lesson. It is recommended that the teacher should use taskbased approach for a maximum of 10 students to ensure the quality of this learning task. Additionally, the teacher should equip themselves with related knowledge when facilitating authentic tasks and also help students develop supplementary skills in other activities so as to accomplish the task.
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE APPLICATION OF TASK-BASED APPROACH TO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR FIRSTYEAR FAST-TRACK STUDENTS BY THE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN FELTE, ULIS, VNU Supervisor: Ms Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy(M.Ed) Student: Lê Thị Hồng Nhung Course: QH2012 HÀ NỘI - 2016 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP Việc áp dụng phương pháp dạy học theo nhiệm vụ vào môn nói Tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm CLC ĐH Ngoại Ngữ, ĐHQG Hà Nội Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Thạc sĩ Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy Sinh viên: Lê Thị Hồng Nhung Khóa: QH2012 HÀ NỘI - 2016 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Lê Thị Hồng Nhung (QH2012.F.1.E2), being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, it is my honor to be supervised by Ms Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy, to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude Without her dedicated guide and support, this paper could not be accomplished Secondly, the researcher would like to send sincere thanks to the teachers-incharge in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, Vietnam National University (FELTE, ULIS, VNU) who agreed to help me with the research and all the first-year fast-track students majoring in English Language Teacher Education in FELTE, ULIS, VNU Without their help and determination in the procedure of collecting data, the researcher could not finish this paper, either Last but not least, I am extremely grateful to my family and friends who always stayed by my side and gave me strength to overcome any difficulties during the time of writing this paper i ABSTRACT Communicative Language Teaching approaches (CLT) have become more and more popular in recent years since the ultimate goal of language learning is to be able to effectively communicate in that language Task-based approach is widely known as one of the approaches influenced by CLT and has been applied in teaching both receptive and productive skills Due to the fact that there has been little research in this field for English major students at tertiary level, this paper was conducted to investigate the application of task-based approach for fast-track freshmen in University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University It is expected to offer useful information for pedagogical tasks for English teachers in general Qualitative research design was applied to address the two research questions relating to the reasons of using task-based approach and its application The teachers from first-year fast-track classes majoring in English Language Teacher Education were chosen to join the study Document observations, class observations and the interviews with teachers were used as data collection instruments; content analysis was the data analysis method The findings of the study showed a number of benefits that task-based approach could bring to students and how task-based approach was strictly applied in Forum activity as well as how it influenced Functional Language lesson It is recommended that the teacher should use task-based approach for a maximum of 10 students to ensure the quality of this learning task Additionally, the teacher should equip themselves with related knowledge when facilitating authentic tasks and also help students develop supplementary skills in other activities so as to accomplish the task ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.5.1 Data collection methods 1.5.2 Data analysis methods 1.6 Overview of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Historical background of task-based approach 2.2 Task-based approach in English language teaching 2.2.1 Definition of task and task-based approach 2.2.2 Types of task 2.2.3 A framework for task-based approach 14 2.3 Teaching English speaking 17 2.3.1 Definition of speaking 17 2.3.2 Principles for teaching speaking 18 iii 2.4 Related studies 20 2.5 Chapter conclusion 21 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Research design 22 3.2 Participants 22 3.3 Data collection instruments: 23 3.3.1 The observation of documents 23 3.3.2 Class observation 24 3.3.3 Semi-structured interviews with teachers 24 3.4 Data collection procedure 25 3.5 Data analysis procedure 26 3.6 Chapter conclusion 26 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27 4.1 Research question 1: Why the FELTE-ULIS teachers teaching first-year fast-track students choose to apply task-based approach to their English speaking lessons as stated in the course guide of the subject? 27 4.2 Research question 2: How the FELTE-ULIS teachers apply task-based approach to English speaking lessons as claimed by themselves and seen by the researcher? 29 4.2.1 Forum 30 4.2.2 Functional Language Speaking Lesson 35 4.3 Chapter conclusion 39 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 40 5.1 Summary of findings 40 iv 5.2 Implication of the study 40 5.3 Limitations of the study 41 5.4 Suggestions for further study 41 LIST OF REFERENCE 42 APPENDICES 46 Appendix 1: OP – FORUM ACTIVITY 46 Appendix 2: OP – FUNCTION LANGUAGE LEARNING 47 Appendix 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS 48 Appendix 4: OP – FORUM ACTIVITY 49 Appendix 5: OP – FORUM ACTIVITY 52 Appendix 6: OP – FUNCTION LANGUAGE LEARNING 54 Appendix 7: OP – FUNCTION LANGUAGE LEARNING 56 Appendix 8: INTERVIEW SCRIPT - TEACHER A 58 Appendix 9: INTERVIEW SCRIPT - TEACHER B 61 Appendix 10: FUNCTION: BEING TACTFUL 65 Appendix 11: FUNCTION: EXPLAINING AND PARAPHRASING 68 v LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Types of task proposed by Nunan (1999, as cited in Nunan, 2004, p.61) 13 Table 2: A framework for designing a task-based lesson (Ellis, 2006) 15 Table 3: A framework for designing a task-based lesson (Willis, 1996) 17 Table 4: Principles for teaching speaking 20 Table 5: The number of participants 23 Table 6: Forum procedure 32 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching L1 First language OP Observation Protocol FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter includes statement of the problem, the aims, the significance as well as the scope of the study Besides, the research questions are clearly indicated as the backbone of the study 1.1 Statement of the problem Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is predicated on the theory that the ultimate goal of language learning is communication This novel concept, which appeared in the last half of the 20th century, has almost closed the door on traditional teaching approaches in which vocabulary and rule clarification dominate language teaching and learning as exemplified by the grammar-translation method However, Richards and Rodgers (2001, as cited in Rozati, 2014) state that CLT is not regarded as a method that enables teachers to design content, syllabus and teaching routines Rather, CLT is composed of a wide range of methods or approaches that have a shared goal of developing communication abilities Among the applied approaches, Willis (1996, as cited in ZHAO, 2011) affirms that task-based approach is highly valued as it creates a chance of integrating “the best insights from communicative language teaching with an organized focus on language form”, which helps avoid the imbalance between language meaning and form in CLT The first decade of the 21st century witnessed a huge change in at least the perception of learning languages in Vietnam It has been all over the news that many university students with 12 years of English learning experience cannot generate a small casual talk with foreigners The course of action towards this alarming issue is the nation-wide transition from traditional approaches to CLT in general and task-based approach in particular at all education levels According to the documents of Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (2006), “Communicative skills are the goal of the teaching of English at the secondary school while formal knowledge of the language serves as the means to the end.” (as come up with two -T‟s clarification if there‟s other false anything unclear about definitions -> to the rules the task -The winning fool other teams team get -When one team bonus presents, the points for others guess active participation (45 mins) 57 Appendix 8: INTERVIEW SCRIPT - TEACHER A Q: Can you tell me about your teaching experience at Fast-track division in FELTE, ULIS, VNU? A: I‟ve been teaching English speaking skill here for five years Q: What approach have you applied in teaching English speaking? A: In general, I‟ve used Communicative Language Teaching and depending on each lesson, teachers may have a specific approach However, some common approaches are competence-based, task-based and project-based And these are also being applied in this semester for first-year fast-track students Q: Why teachers choose task-based approach? A: As students need the exposure to authenticity, task-based approach provides students a chance to fulfill the given authentic task while practicing speaking at the same time Additionally, authentic tasks in task-based approach get students ready before literally stepping outside the academic world Q: What difficulties have you faced when applying such approaches in the lessons? A: Not so many difficulties because fast-track students have a good command of English and also are actively engaged in the activities Still, for some activities that require English academic language such as Forum, students often struggle to cite a quotation because of their academic language deficiency as well as knowledge related to that field Q: What kind of activities you often use in speaking lessons in this course? 58 A: There are two main parts in speaking lessons The first one is called Function or Language structure and the other is Speaking practice in form of problem –solving cases Q: Forum is one of the main activity in this course Can you please explain further about the objectives of this activity? A: As a matter of fact, forum which involves a lot of discussions does meet the requirements of language learning students Specifically, students have to demonstrate various types of competences through this activity such as linguistic, social-cultural, strategic, affective… Besides, the content of each forum keeps students updated with the world around Q: How you evaluate students’ performance in this activity? A: Some students were not quite confident and they seemed to read rather than present the information On the other hand, some were really fluent and confident Q: What aspects you often give comments on? (Pronunciation, Grammar, Vocab, Idea development) A: It depends In this course, teachers focus on meaning more than on form and especially to students at this level, they are able to self-correct or improve grammatical structures or form by themselves Q: How you evaluate the authenticity of tasks in the course? A: It‟s relevant to students majoring in education And in some cases, students can even choose the subject by themselves Q: Do you usually give students language forms before the activity? 59 A: No As I mentioned earlier, students at this level are able to use their own linguistic resource to handle the task so teachers only provide help regarding vocabulary when they are in need In fact, the only problem that students face is the diversity of language use Normally, we start off the activity by some video clip then introduce some required function language After that, students have chance to practice with both provided function language and their own linguistic resource 60 Appendix 9: INTERVIEW SCRIPT - TEACHER B Q: Can you tell me about your teaching experience at Fast-track division in FELTE, ULIS, VNU? A: I‟ve been teaching English speaking skill here for four years Q: What approaches you often use to teach English speaking? A: Task-based or competence-based approach Q: Why teachers choose task-based approach? A: Task-based approach is one of the most updated approaches in the world The idea of focus-on-meaning does help students improve communication skill and also, this approach can encourage students to make full use of their linguistic resources Q: What difficulties have you faced when applying task-based approach? A: Honestly, with fast-track students, we have little problems as they have a good command of English Any tasks can be effectively solved Perhaps the only obstacle is that we need to design the activity that is challenging and diverse enough for students to avoid boredom (regarding vocabulary and topic) Q: What kind of activities you often use in speaking lessons in this course? A: There are three main activities in this course: Forum, Functional Language lesson and speaking practice However, speaking practice is like a trial test for students to prepare for the final exam Q: Can you tell me more about Functional Language lesson according to: -Material usage -Feedback or evaluation 61 -Framework -The authenticity of the activity A: Material: adapted (Core book: Face2face; Reference book: Cambridge…) Framework: +) Pre-task: Teachers adapted the material by including the pre-task before each activity In this part, students are usually given a video or a situation and asked to take notes useful information or language Also, they reflect on their own linguistic resource that is relevant to the case and combine all as a kind of short review or language input But you can see that students this on their own, not fully guided or shown by teachers +) The pre-task also acts as a push for students to use new words due to the fact that students at this level are prone to stay fluent by using their current linguistic resources -After introducing the language, teachers ask students to practice the language in the form of drill exercises and then produce the language in a meaningful context For example, when students learn about discussion language, they are required to have a discussion on promotion plan for a product they choose by themselves after watching a similar task +) Activities are regularly conducted in pairs or groups +) Activities are meaning-focused or aims to develop fluency since students have little problems with forms -Feedback for Function language speaking activities: +) The authenticity of their language use 62 +) Idea development +) Pronunciation (if any) +) Grammar (not) +) Vocabulary: whether they use provided function language or whether their vocabulary use is diverse -The authenticity of the activity: Besides, authenticity is the key component in all the activities In fact, we tried to include authentic videos or audios into the lesson Still, there was a certain degree of inauthenticity that can be found in some role play activities Specifically, we asked them to use a number of idioms or uncommon words which might be considered “too many” for a normal conversation Q: Can you tell me more about Forum activity? A: First of all, this is a task-based activity Objectives +) Develop fluency and critical thinking, presentation, debate as well as discussion skills; Require students to use vocabulary as well as researched knowledge in speaking; Know how to synthesize information Evaluation I strictly follow the assessment rubric; however, honestly, I prioritize fluency and idea development Besides, in terms of focus-on-form feedback, I use both explicit and implicit ways Explicit feedback for errors or systematized mistakes (E.g: problems with particular sounds) Implicit feedback for “temporary” mistakes (E.g: repeated expressions) 63 Student’s problems Students are not aware of using data or figures to back up their arguments They often speak their mind, so their arguments are not quite convincing 64 Appendix 10: FUNCTION: BEING TACTFUL LEAD - IN [V 3.2] You are going to watch an excerpt from an American sitcom called “The Big Bang Theory” In this video, Howard is being questioned by Penny about his hesitation to call Bernadette, the girl with whom he previously went on a date Who is being tactful? Howard or Penny? What is the reason for his hesitation to call Bernadette? Why does he have to be tactful instead of being blunt and straight to the point? In the video, Howard uses euphemistic speech to talk about Bernadette In what situations English speakers use euphemistic speech? 65 LANGUAGE FOCUS What is euphemism? Fill out the blanks A euphemism is a polite word or phrase that is used to avoid saying something ………………… Match the euphemisms to their hidden meaning Euphemisms Meaning She‟s between jobs He‟s drunk He‟s a bit tipsy She is pregnant He‟s a bit thin on top He‟s getting old She‟s passed away/She didn‟t make He‟s lying it He‟s getting on a bit Excuse me, I must go to the toilet She‟s got a bun in the oven She‟s unemployed He‟s stretching the truth She‟s lazy Excuse me, I must visit the little boys She‟s fat room/ the rest room She‟s full-figured/ curvy He‟s bald She‟s a bit unmotivated She died Can you find other softer or more polite expressions to replace these words/ phrases? 66 Handicapped/ disabled Poor Used car Slum Homeless Beer or liquor Pornography Garbage man Prostitute Prison/ jail PRACTICE Work in groups of four You are going to be given a cue card for your roleplay Use at least euphemistic expressions in your role play The role- play should be within minutes HOME ASIGNMENT Work in groups for four Each group needs to find one video in which euphemistic speech is used The video can be of any genre and should not exceed minutes in length These videos will be shared in class during the next lesson 67 Appendix 11: FUNCTION: EXPLAINING AND PARAPHRASING LEAD - IN [R4.1] Listen to five people talking about sayings that they like Put the sayings in pictures A-E in the order they talk about them 68 Work in pairs Try to match the phrases to these meanings You shouldn‟t worry about things that might or might not happen in the future It‟s important to choose the right person for the right activity It‟s pointless doing something yourself if you know someone who can it for you If you mix with the bad crowd, you will be judged the same way as the crowd If you don‟t offer people enough money to a job, you won‟t get the best person 69 Listen again and note down the words/ phrases speakers use to explain and paraphrase their ideas LANGUAGE FOCUS When we need to clarify, simplify or explain something we have already said, we often use phrases which signal to listener that we are going to say the same thing in a different way 2.1 Fill in the gaps with what or which: simply/just/basically means…… And it/this/that means is ……………… I mean by that is …………… By I mean …………… I‟m trying to say is ………… is to say ……………… 2.2 Fill in the gaps with these words: that simply other way To put it , …… is to say, …… Or to put it another , … In words, … 3.1.[R4.2] You are going to play a game called Bluff Listen to two teams playing the game and answer the questions 70 What is the game about? What does each person on the first team have to do? What does the second team have to do? 3.2 Work in pairs Which you think is the true definition of the Australian expressions „She‟ll be apples‟? 3.3 [R4.3] Listen and check 71 ...ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP Việc áp dụng phương pháp dạy học theo nhiệm vụ vào mơn nói Tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm CLC ĐH Ngoại Ngữ, ... Tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm CLC ĐH Ngoại Ngữ, ĐHQG Hà Nội Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Thạc sĩ Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy Sinh viên: Lê Thị Hồng Nhung Khóa: QH2012 HÀ NỘI - 2016 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that... framework in the examined environment with the theories as in this study 2.5 Chapter conclusion In this chapter, the researcher has reviewed the related theories regarding historical background, definitions