luận văn thạc sĩ việc sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ năng nói cho học sinh khối lớp 6 tại một trường THCS ở quận nam từ liêm, hà nội​

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TÔ THỊ HỒNG VÂN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NAM TU LIEM DIST., HANOI (Việc sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ nói cho học sinh khối lớp trường THCS Quận Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TÔ THỊ HỒNG VÂN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NAM TU LIEM DIST., HANOI (Việc sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ nói cho học sinh khối lớp trường THCS Quận Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa Hanoi, 2019 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify my authority of the minor thesis entitled “The use of role play to improve speaking skill for students at grade in a secondary school in Nam Tu Liem Dist., Hanoi” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Signature To Thi Hong Van i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research thesis would not have been completed without the support of my supervisor, my lecturers, my colleagues, my students and my family members First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Prof Nguyen Hoa whose expert guidance, vast knowledge of educational research and teaching experience greatly supported me during the time I carried out the thesis I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at the Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Their sincere support and considerations have enabled me to finish the course I would like to thank all the teachers and grade students at a secondary school in Nam Tu Liem Dist., for their support and cooperation in helping me complete this thesis Last but not least, my gratitude is extended to all members of my family for their love and encouragement during the time I carried out this study ii ABSTRACT In recent years, enhancing students’ oral communication is one of the fundamental goals of foreign language teaching Among different approaches to teaching and learning speaking, role play technique has received worldwide acceptance from researchers and educators for its many benefits to the learners In the reality, the teachers and grade students in a secondary school in Nam Tu Liem Dist., have met many problems in teaching and learning English speaking In an attempt to improve speaking skill for grade students, the researcher decided to carry out an action research with 40 students at class 6C, a secondary school in Nam Tu Liem Dist., in 12 weeks Questionnaire and tests (pre-test and post-test) were used to explore student’s attitudes towards role play activities and its effectiveness The results of the study revealed that students’ speaking skill had been improved remarkably by using role play Most of the students had positive attitudes toward using role play activities in speaking lessons The students enjoyed doing role play activities in front of the class They became more confident and actively involved in speaking lessons The findings of the study showed that role play is an effective teaching technique which should be widely applied in teaching and learning English not only for grade students but for students with different levels Key words: role play, grade students, improve speaking skill iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the research 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the research 1.5 Method of the research 1.6 Significance of the research 1.7 Thesis organization CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of speaking skills 2.1.1 Definition of speaking 2.1.2 Parts of speaking 2.1.3 Teaching speaking 2.1.4 A successful speaking lesson in a classroom 2.1.5 Strategies to improve speaking skills 2.1.6 Assessment of speaking 2.2 Role play 2.2.1 Definition of role play 2.2.2 The importance of using role play 10 2.2.3 Classification of role play 10 2.2.4 The significance of role play in teaching speaking 11 2.3 Related studies in Asia and Vietnam 12 2.4 Summary 13 iv CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14 3.1 Setting of the study 14 3.2 Research design 14 3.3 Action research procedure 15 3.4 Action research procedures of the current study 16 3.4.1 Stage 1: Identifying the problem and planning 16 3.4.2 Stage 2: Action – implementing the plan 18 3.4.3 Stage 3: Observing the action 19 3.4.4 Stage 4: Reflecting the action 19 3.5 Participants 20 3.6 Data collection method 20 3.6.1 Observation 20 3.6.2 Questionnaire and semi-structured interview 20 3.6.3 Pre-test and post-test 22 3.7 Data analysis 22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 4.1 Preliminary investigation 23 4.2 Pre-test results 26 4.3 Findings of the study 29 4.3.1 Findings on the students’ speaking performance 29 4.3.2 Findings on the students’ self-confidence 30 4.3.3 Data analysis and findings from the students’ questionnaire 30 4.4 The tests 33 4.5 Discussion 35 4.6 Summary 35 CHAPTER : CONCLUSIONS 36 5.1 Conclusion 36 5.2 Pedagogical implications 37 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 38 v REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I PHỤ LỤC 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT CHO HỌC SINH III APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS V PHỤ LỤC 2: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT CHO HỌC SINH VII APPENDIX 3: THE QUESTIONS OF PRE-TEST IX APPENDIX 4: THE QUESTIONS OF POST-TEST X APPENDIX 5: THE FRAME OF HARRIS’S ORAL ENGLISH RATING SCALE XI vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and role of learning speaking skill 23 Chart 1: Students’ self-assessment towards their speaking competence level 24 Table 2: Students’ attitudes toward speaking materials 24 Table 3: Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking 25 Table 4: Teachers’ techniques to encourage students to speak and improve their English speaking skill 25 Table 5: Pre-test result 26 Table 6: Results of students’ speaking performance in pre-test 27 Table 7: Results of students’ speaking performance in cycle .29 Table 8: Results from survey questionnaire for students 31 Table 9: Results of tests 34 Chart 2: The improvement in the students’ speaking skill after using role play activities 34 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the research When the world has been developing day by day, there is an urge requirement arising which is the necessary to have a worldwide accepted language to communicate At that time, English has become a global language because it is spoken by lots of people in many countries In non-native English-speaking countries, students have to spend more time to learn English as a compulsory subject at school for student It is because people who speak English fluently can access the world knowledge conveniently This trend also applies in Vietnam Studying English requires learners to foster four skills, which are: listening, reading, writing, and speaking Generally, each skill holds equal role for learners but speaking seems the most important (Penny Ur, 1996) However, Heriansyah (2012) states that speaking foreign language fluently is the most difficult thing to complete because it requires more than proficiency in grammatical and semantic rules The author’s school as well as many other secondary schools in Vietnam has used the English curriculum regulated by the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training The author has been teaching English for grade In particular, the textbook of this grade has 12 units whose topics are completely different from each other and suitable for the level of students Each unit has sections, which are: (i) reading, (ii) speaking, (iii) listening, (iv) writing and (v) language focus Time to teach and learn each section is 45 minutes; periods per week for all language skills Thus, students don’t have much time to practise speaking With students at grade in a secondary school in Nam Tu Liem Dist., speaking skill is very difficult for them Through the author’s observation, speaking ability of students is impacted by several reasons The first problem is that students feel afraid if they make mistakes Thus, many students are not self-assured to say something and join the classroom activity The second problem that students have to face with is that they not have a sufficient range of vocabulary As a result, they have difficulty in ... AT GRADE IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NAM TU LIEM DIST., HANOI (Việc sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ nói cho học sinh khối lớp trường THCS Quận Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS... STUDENTS I PHỤ LỤC 1: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT CHO HỌC SINH III APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS V PHỤ LỤC 2: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT CHO HỌC SINH VII APPENDIX 3: THE QUESTIONS... Participants 20 3 .6 Data collection method 20 3 .6. 1 Observation 20 3 .6. 2 Questionnaire and semi-structured interview 20 3 .6. 3 Pre-test and post-test