Designing a supplementary english speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at thai nguyen high school

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  - NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG DESINGING A SUPPLEMENTARY ENGLISH SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NĨI BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HANOI - 2010 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  - NGUYỄN QUỲNH TRANG DESINGING A SUPPLEMENTARY ENGLISH SPEAKING SYLLABUS FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH NĨI BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: Dr HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA HANOI - 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION i ii iii iv I Rationale II The aim of the study III Research question IV Scope of the study V Methods of the study VI Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Syllabus design I.1.1 Definitions of syllabus: I.1.2 What is an effective syllabus? I.2 Speaking skills and speaking activities I.2.1 The nature of spoken language I.2.2 Speaking skills I.2.3 Speaking activities I 2.3.1 Successful speaking activities I.2.3.2 Some common speaking activities 10 I.2.3.2.1 Discussion 10 I.2.3.2.2 Interview 10 I.2.3.2.3 Information gaps 11 I.2.3.2.4 Surveys 11 I.2.3.2.5 Role - plays 11 Chapter II research methodology 12 II.1 Present situation 12 II.1 General background 12 II.1.2 The teachers 13 II.1 The students 14 II.1 The textbook 14 v II.2 Research Methodology 15 II.2.1 Research Subjects 15 II.2.2 Instruments 16 II 2.3 Procedures of data collection 17 II 2.4 Data Analysis 17 II.2 Summary 18 II.3 Data analysis and discussion 18 II.3.1 Survey questionnaire 18 II.3.2 Personal observations and interviews 24 II.3.3 Summary 25 Chapter III The proposed supplementary speaking syllabus 26 for 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School III.1 Introduction 26 III.2 Goals and Objectives 27 III.2.1.Goals of the syllabus 27 III.2.2 Objectives of the syllabus 27 III.3 Selection of content 28 III.3.1 Learning tasks 29 III.3.2 Materials selection 30 III.3.3 Organization of the syllabus 31 III.3.4 Suggested tasks 32 III.3.4.1 Listing: 32 III.3.4.2 Talk about routines 32 III.3.4.3 Gap- filling 34 III.3.4.4 Problem solving task 36 III.3.4.5 Sharing personal experiences 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 37 References 39 Appendix I PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale There is a saying „A man who knows two languages is worth than two men‟ this shows the importance and developing tendency of learning foreign languages Nowadays English becomes more popular than ever before It is spoken all over the world and appears in all spheres of human life It is considered a bridge connecting country with country, culture with culture It is language of economy, education, entertainment, sports, etc Although English is an international language, learning and teaching English is a complicated process In many countries, where English is learned as a second language, those responsible curriculum and examinations have, in recent years, four skills: speaking skill, listening skill, reading skill, and writing skill All of these skills are important, but speaking seems to be more important Like all language skills, speaking is also a crucial factor to second language acquisition From informal talks with English teachers and school students, it is found out that at first, all beginners have a desire to learn English and to speak English as fluently as native speakers do; however, as time passing by they find themselves facing many difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful interactions For 10th form students at Thai Nguyen high school, these problems have been detected as: (1) Students speaking abilities in Vietnamese are low and mixed as some of them come from mountainous areas and are ethnic people, some others not have good background education (2) Students are not motivated enough because some topics and situations are strange and not interesting to them, some tasks are not suitable with their speaking competence (3) The time allowance is not enough for them to practice using the target language and the language they have learnt in authentic situations, which prevents them from developing speaking skills in the real world (4) And some students find it difficult to make their talks lively and persuasive even when they think their vocabulary and grammar is not the question Therefore, the analysis of the abovementioned reality indicates that it is necessary to design a supplementary speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High school to help them develop their speaking skill II The aim of the study The study is aimed at designing a supplementary English speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School In order to achieve that ultimate aim, the study has to obtain the following objectives: + investigating the situations of Thai Nguyen High School, the teachers of English, the students, the textbooks + analyzing the students‟ needs in terms of speaking skills + identifying the objectives of the supplementary speaking syllabus and then selecting the content of the syllabus for these students It is hoped that the proposed speaking syllabus will be useful and interesting, thus involving them practicing speaking and then developing their speaking skills III Research question In order to achieve these goals, the study is carried out to answer the following research question: - Can the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High school develop their speaking skills through a supplementary English speaking syllabus? IV Scope of the study Due to the duration of time and the length as well as the references available, this thesis does focus on designing a supplementary speaking syllabus, which is suitable for the local situation of Thai Nguyen School It aims at only students in grade 10 V Methods of the study To this study, a number of references, books, and websites have been selected and helpful information have been collected The data of the study was mainly collected by means of material analysis, and a survey questionnaire Observations and interviews were also conducted to collect supplementary information for the study VI Design of the study This study consists of three parts, excluding the appendixes and the references Part A, Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study Part B, Development, is the heart of the study which directly deals with speaking syllabus This part is divided into three chapters including chapter I: Literature review and theoretical background; chapter II: Presents methodology of the study including background situation, data analysis, findings and discussion; chapter III: Presents the proposed supplementary speaking syllabus with speaking topics, tasks and activities Part C, the last part presents the conclusion of the study and some acknowledgements of the limitations of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Syllabus design I.1.1 Definitions of syllabus: In the history of foreign-language teaching, a remarkable number of syllabus definitions have been given by acknowledged researchers, of which some are really worth noticing A syllabus is generally taken as an expression of opinion on the nature of language and learning; it acts as a guide for both teachers and learners by providing some goals to be achieved Widdowson (1984: 26) defines syllabus as " simply a framework within which activities can be carried out: a teaching device to facilitate learning " Analogically speaking, if learning process is seen as a journey, the syllabus can be viewed as a statement of a predicted routes with which teachers and learners not only have an idea of where they are going, but how they might get to the destination (Hutchinson and Water 1987: 84) They further simplify its nature: "At its simplest level a syllabus can be described as a statement of what is to be learnt It reflects of language and linguistic performance." Unlike Yalden (1987:87) who defines a syllabus simply as " A summary of the content to which learners will be exposed", Dubin and Oshtain (2000:27-28) bring about another meaning: "For what we are calling 'syllabus' might have the title of 'curriculum ', 'plan', 'course outline, or any number of other names Whatever it is called, it is a document, which ideally describes: • What the learners are expected to know at the end of the course, or the course objectives in operational terms • What is to be taught or learned during the course, in the form of an inventory of items; • When it is to be taught, and at what rate of progress, relating the inventory of items to the different levels and stages as well as the time constraints of the course; • How it is to be taught, suggesting procedures, techniques, and materials; • How it is to be evaluated, suggesting testing and evaluating mechanisms; The stand point of Dubin and Oshtain is practically useful and detailed for any attempt to design a syllabus Therefore, it is used as a guideline for the researcher during the syllabus designing process of this study I.1.2 What is an effective syllabus? Le (2001:12) believes that there are a number of key concepts that need serious consideration of the syllabus designers The issue of affective factors in language learning can be put in the first place As in Le's explanation, students tend to learn more easily when they feel relaxed, and fun is considered an important factor in successful language learning Consequently, it is advisable that not only the teacher but also the syllabus designer should help to make the learning process as relaxing as possible In order to facilitate this, the syllabus designer should make the syllabus reflect the students' interests and motivation through a learners' needs analysis covering various factors, such as age, gender, interests, and motivation, as well as their short-term and long-term needs (ibid., 12) Secondly, the role for learners in syllabus design and generating materials or curriculum also needs to be taken into account since this "changes learners from passive receivers of information into active designers and users of syllabus content" (Hall, 1995 quoted in Le, 2001: 12) The last principle for an effective syllabus is concerned with the characteristics of good students, who are creative and experiment with language and have their own strategies for learning and practising language Hence, a syllabus should take this into serious consideration and encourage the effective development of such students According to Grunert (1997: 14-19), an effective course syllabus should be the integration of the following components An ideal syllabus is expected to: • Establish a contact and connection between students and instructors • Set the tone for the course • Describe your beliefs about learning, teaching and assessment • Acquaint students with the structure of the course • Include handouts or detailed assignment descriptions • Identify students' responsibilities for success • Help students determine their readiness for the course • State how the course fits into the curriculum and overall program • Provide available learning resources • Communicate technology requirements for the course • Contain difficult-to-obtain reading materials • Describe effective student study habits • Include materials that support learning outside the classroom • Serve as a learning contract (Grunert, 1997: 14-19) In addition, it is widely recognized that Bachman's model of communicative competence provides a potentially useful framework for the design of language syllabus Thus, as Phan (2005) states, these competences are suggested "as having to be equally combined in a teaching syllabus to offer learners a fuller understanding of the language" I.2 Speaking skills and speaking activities I.2.1 The nature of spoken language People use spoken language to express their ideas, opinions and feelings They also use it to make sense of and confirm their understandings, to question and test their assumptions and to explore meaning In other words, they use spoken language to interact with others for different purposes and to develop their understanding of different registers, tones, and the use of expression language To reach the purpose of communication, it is true that spoken language is helped by different means of non-verbal communication The speaker can vary his voice quality, adopting posture, gesture to express a great deal Another noticeable feature of spoken language is that it typically contains many incomplete sentences Byrne (1976: 95) says, "in contrast to written language where sentences are carefully structured and linked together, speech is characterized by incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical utterances and frequently false starts and repetitions" Brown and Yule (1982:68) also discuss spoken language in comparison with written language that: "written language is characterized by well-formed sentences which are integrated into highly structured paragraph Spoken language, in contrast, consists of short, often fragmentary utterances in a range of a pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetitions and overlaps between one speaker and another, and speakers usually use nonspecific references In addition, the use of fillers such as "oh", "well" makes spoken language less conceptually dense than other types of language" With the nature of spoken language, the main goal of teaching and learning speaking skills is oral fluency Savignon (1991:77) reminds that "we are trying to get our learners to develop linguistic fluency not just the accuracy ( ) We are equipping our students with took for generating unrehearsed language performance "out there" when they leave the womb of our classroom" This can be regarded as the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately and without too much hesitation That means people can use language to express themselves with unfinished sentences, but finally the other can understand and get the necessary information As a result, the speaker focuses more on what he wants to say than 29 III.3.1 Learning tasks Task is defined as activity where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome (Willis, J 1996:26) One job of the designer and teacher is to select topics and tasks that will motivate students, engage their attention, present a suitable degree of intellectual and linguistic challenge and promote their language development as efficiently as possible There are six common task types arranged from simple to complex tasks Tasks that are more complex may incorporate two or more types and they can be exploited to the full use by the teachers Listing: the outcome is the completion of lists or draft mind map - Brainstorming activities - Fact- finding Ordering and sorting: set of information or data that has been ordered and sorted according to specified criteria is the outcome of this task type - sequencing - ranking - categorizing - classifying Comparing: the outcome varies according to the individual task goal - matching - finding similarities - finding differences Problem solving: the outcome is the solution(s) to the problem, which can then be evaluated - situations analysis - reasoning and decision making - role- playing - discussing - debating Sharing personal experiences: the outcome is being sociable, entertaining, or hoping to get to know others better - narrating - describing 30 - exploring and explaining attitudes - opinions - reactions Creative tasks: end product which can be appreciated by a wide audience is the outcome of the task type This complex task incorporates other task types and tends to have more stages than any classroom tasks, and then it can be transferred to writing skills - presenting - discussing Among six task types, the last one is the most difficult and challenging, so the writer does not intend to include it in the speaking supplementary III.3.2 Materials selection Since materials are a key among three objects: teachers, students and materials in the process of teaching and learning, a number of criteria should be taken into consideration right at the outset of materials development process Materials not teach nor learn but they help teachers and students achieve their goals With good materials, conscientious and experienced teachers and good students could exploit to every details of them to reach the highest level of success Good materials will, therefore, contain: + Interesting situational topics, enjoyable activities that encourage the students to speak; + Language appropriate for the students to use to express their ideas in the contexts; + Opportunities for the students to practice speaking using their known knowledge plus the target language of the lessons; + Content which both the teacher and the students can cope with Selection of speaking activities is based on existing publication market Although there are available books, the researcher has made decision to choose materials which are useful, attractive, and appropriate to the students‟ needs In other words, materials are to be authentic and interesting and serve as a source of useful and appropriate for the students in the local region The books chosen have to contain tasks such as comparing, problem solving, ordering and sorting To help the students avoid boredom and promote them to speak, these tasks can be illustrated with pictures or tables 31 III.3.3 Organization of the syllabus The speaking supplementary syllabus is designed for two terms of grade 10 at Thai Nguyen High school and the first term lasts 18 weeks, the second term lasts 17 weeks with one speaking lesson in English lessons in every unit officially in the morning plus more supplementary 45- minute lessons of English per week in the afternoon The tasks are sequenced in each topical unit and situations The syllabus presented in the following table is a proposed guide and the items are not all included Some examples are showed for describing kinds of task types concerning task devised, task designed and task selected Speaking skills should be practiced in every lesson of this supplementary syllabus as stated in the goals and objectives Topic A day in the life of… Unit School talks People‟s background Technology The mass media The story of my village Undersea world National parks 11 The world cup 14 Famous city 15 Historical places 16 Situation - Subjects to learn every week - Routines Making friends Tasks - Listing - Guessing game An interesting excursion Talking about Vietnamese football Hanoi and Thai Nguyen Talking about ATKDinh Hoa, Thai Nguyen (safe region for the communists) - Narrative - gap filling - making dialogues Meeting famous - Interviews people - Matching (nonverbal language) Uses of information - Discussion technology at TNHS - Sharing personal - experiences Favorite types of the - Guessing games mass media - Memory games Present life in the - Comparing village and future life Sea protection - Matching pictures with actions - Riddles - Discussion Comparing - Discussion - Problem solving 32 III.3.4 Suggested tasks III.3.4.1 Listing: (used for unit 1- A day in the life of…) Aims: - brainstorm vocabulary of subjects; - help students remember words so the can the next task; - encourage them to cooperate in groups and compete with the others Task Work in pairs Write on your papers all the subjects you have to learn every week Then compare your answers with the pair next to you Example: Maths Every pair has to write a list of all the subjects without looking at their textbooks The teacher limits the time (2 minutes) The early finishers write their lists on the board Other follow- up tasks can be used (up to the teacher) as follows:  Memory challenge games: Lists can be hidden and students challenge their partners/ friends to recall as many items as possible in a specified time All the lists on the board are rubbed out Students work in pairs and they have to cover their own list of subjects They take turn to say aloud the subjects they remember Who can remember more words is the winner After some minutes, the teacher can ask volunteers to say all the subjects they have listed and she may mark the students  Ordering and sorting tasks: (type 2) Students can be asked to arrange the subjects they learn in the order of importance or according to the alphabet order If the subjects are put in the order of importance, the teacher can ask for the students‟ agreement on the three most important ones If the subjects are put in the alphabet order, the teacher has to limit the time and see who is the quickest to complete the task as the game show on TV: “who is the millionaire?” III.3.4.2 Talk about routines (Simon Greenall 1999: task 2b) Aims: - help the students remember the use of the present simple tense; - activate the students to participate in the speaking activities; - help the students get on with each others Preparation: Prepare about 30 question cards with prompts Make one copy for each group of students and cut out all the cards Provide answer cards that tell the students whether to give a true answer or a false answer 33 Procedure: - Ask the students to work in groups of four or five - Explain how to play using the instructions writing on the board and giving examples For example: (on card: What/ have for breakfast?) What you usually have for breakfast? - Player A who questions holds out the two cards marked “give a true answer” and “give a false answer” face down, and ask the next student- player B to choose one card without showing them to anyone else Player A then asks the question on the card and player B must give either a true or false answer, depending on the card chosen - All the other players, including Player A, guess whether Player B‟s answer is true or false Each player gets one point for each correct guess - The game continues until the first player reaches ten points If necessary, the teacher can get a good student to explain it again in Vietnamese to make sure every student know what and how to What time/ get up? Where/ go shopping? How many lessons/ study a day? What time/ revise lessons? Where/ go at weekend? How often/ go to the stadium? What/ wear for school? Where/ your homework? How/ get to school? What time/ finish school? Where/ your best friend How often/ play truant? live? What/ watch on TV? Where/ buy food? How often/ have a bath? Where/ go for your holiday? Where/ send letters? How often/ listen to music? Where/ play football? How many cups of coffee/ Where/ learn English? drink a day? What time/ have a shower? Where/ catch fish? How often/ buy new clothes? What/ have for dinner? Where/ have a coffee? How often/ chat with friends? Who/ play computer games with? GIVE A TRUE ANSWER Where/ see a film? How often/ help parents housework? GIVE A FALSE ANSWER 34 Follow- up task: how you know your classmates Ask a representative from each group in turn to read aloud about his friend without mentioning the name For example: Somebody in our group does his homework in the library Other group has to say who they think the person is III.3.4.3 Gap- filling (David Kehe and Peggy Dustin Kehe ; 2002: 65) Aims: - Help the students make acquaintance with friends; - Help the students start or end a conversation; - Help the students to use language spontaneously in conversing Expression pieces: Conversation starters - Excuse me, I like your … - Are you a friend of … - Could I ask you something? - Could/ can I ask … ? Fill in the blanks with the words or phrases in bold type something Could teacher Do you think In a classroom before class starts 1.A: Excuse me ………….I ask you……………….? Do you know the ……………for this class? 2.B: Yeah 3.A: …………….she‟s a good teacher? 4.B: Yes, I My friends all say that she‟s helpful How about you him I like your a long time a friend of Jim’s Can I ask At a party, at Jim’s apartment: 5.A: Hi Are you…………………….? 6.B: Yeah, I am Jim and I work together………………… ? 7.A: I just moved into the next apartment Have you known………… ? 8.B: About years 35 In a waiting room: 9.A: Hi ………………… shirt 10 B: Thanks 11 A: ……………… where you got it? 12 B: Sure I got it at the small downtown Expression pieces: Conversation stoppers - Would you excuse me? - Well, I‟d better going/ I should be going - (It‟s been) nice talking to you - I hope we get a chance to talk again sometime Fill in the blanks with the words or phrases in bold type see you nice talking It’s been you excuse get a chance I’d better In a classroom: 1.A: I think the teacher is ready to start It‟s been …………………to you 2.B: Yeah I enjoy it too 3.A: I haven‟t had a chance to talk to Tom yet Would …………me? 4.B: Sure 5.A: ………………nice talking to you ………………………later In a waiting room: 6.A: Well I won‟t take up any more of your time …………….going 7.B: I hope ………………to talk again sometime 8.A: Me too Pair practice: Start the conversation and talk for about minute, then end the conversation Prepare situations - You are at your friend‟s party You stand next to a girl the same age as you She has a beautiful shirt - You are in a meeting hall for new students You see a student standing alone She looks worried - You are at a park You sit next to an elderly person on a park bench - You are in a break time with a friend She has a beautiful picture story 36 III.3.4.4 Problem solving task Aims: - Help the students to find the solution for the problem; - Encourage the students to cooperate to achieve the outcome Discussion: Decide the best two places- cheap but safe- for the class to go on a day holiday in Thai Nguyen Students work in groups of to discuss the places where they can spend a holiday together These places are suggested before and written on the board All the students have to is to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of them for the class and the decide the places with the most advantages III.3.4.5 Sharing personal experiences Aims: - Help each students talk about a topic quite fluently; - Help the students to express ideas in some sentences independently Work in groups Tell your friends about kinds of music/music bands/singers you like and explain why Other members listen and ask questions if you like I like pop music The singer I like is Nam Khanh The music band I like is the AC&M- four members of the group perform well and their songs are easy to listen Their songs cheer me up whenever I feel bad I‟ve got a mobile phone with a function of playing music Therefore, I can listen to them all the time even when I my homework Sometimes I watch pop programmes on TV I practice singing too but my voice is not sweet What about you?” 37 PART C: CONCLUSION Teaching speaking is teaching a skill As such, the appropriate teaching style differs fundamentally from that required by many other disciplines where acquiring knowledge is the primary objective To train the skill, a student needs to a lot of practice tasks including thinking in the language; using appropriate language; expressing the language clearly and logically in the right manner and using non- verbal language to make the conversations/talks more interesting The findings of the study assist the author to draw out significant following conclusions Firstly, most of the students are interested in speaking English even though their speaking level is not high enough They enjoyed learning speaking through games, discussion, and conversations Secondly, using pair/group work in supplementary speaking activities helps students gain benefits in improving not only their speaking skills but also their ways of cooperating with friends to complete tasks successfully The next one is the strange and challenges of topics and tasks with a lot of new words in English 10 that are above the level of particular students at Thai Nguyen High School Finally, the students need to learn some other ways to make their talks lively and persuasive such as using non- verbal languages With an aim to provide a better solution for the remaining situation of the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School, a supplementary speaking syllabus is proposed in this research The syllabus is a combination of topical, skill- based and task- based syllabuses Supplementary speaking activities among which some are simplified, designed and selected should be related to the themes in current speaking tasks in textbooks, so that students either have knowledge about the topics in some ways, or offer students different types of the same topic To practice supplementary speaking activities, students need more lesson time in class Thanks to the Manager Board of Thai Nguyen High School, the students are offered two more supplementary English lessons every week, in the afternoon so they can improve their English in general and speaking skills in particular Despite the fact that much effort has been made, certain limitations are unavoidable due to the researcher‟s limited knowledge and little experience in doing research Questions in the survey questionnaire could not cover all the matters concerned, thus they only focus on the key points such as the students‟ background; attitude towards learning English/ speaking skills/ attitudes towards speaking tasks, topics in textbooks; the need for extra speaking 38 activities Data collected from personal observation and interview with few teachers of English at the School was referential for the study Therefore, it is suggested there should be a further research on the students‟ needs in more details Suggestions for further study as follows: - There should be more speaking lesson observations of other teachers of English to have much more reliable results - There should be interviews with different teachers of English from other High schools in Thai Nguyen city to see the students difficulties in speaking and find way to overcome them - The researcher should ask other colleagues of the same matter to observe her extra speaking lessons for their evaluation on the syllabus The researcher hopes that with this syllabus the students will find English speaking lessons more enjoyable, then the evaluation will be done to judge the usefulness and practicality 39 References Brown G and Yule G (1982) Teaching the spoken language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by Principle – An interactive approach to Language Pedagogy Longman Burns, A & Joyce, H (1997) Focus on Speaking Sydney National Central for English Language Teaching and Research Byrne, D (1976) Teaching oral English London: Longman CunningsWorth, A (1995) Choosing Your Coursebook, The Bath Press A Devision Heinnemann Publishers Ltd., Oxford, (1995) Dornyei, Z (2003) Questionnaires in Second Language Research Lawrence Erlbaum associates, Inc., Publishers Dubin F and Oshtain E (2000) Course Design – Developing Programs and Materials for Language Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Express Greenall, S (1999) Reward Macmillan Heinemann Publisher Limited Grunert (1997) The Course Syllabus: A Learner-Centered Approach Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing 10 Harmer J (1991) The practice of English language teaching London and New York: 11 Harmer, J (1998) How to teach English Cambridge: Cambridge University Express 12 Hutchinson,T and Water,A (1987) English for Specific purposes A Learning Central Approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Express 13 Joanna Budden (British Council, Spain) Role Play 14 Kehe, D and Kehe , P D (2002) Conversation Strategies: Pro Lingua Associates USA 15 Kumar, R (1996) Research Methodology Melbourne Addison Wesley Longman Australia Pty Limited 16 Le, T A P (2001) Task-Based Syllabus Design and Public Speaking Teacher's Edition November 12- 17 17 Nunan, D (1992) Research methods in language learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 40 18 Nunan, D (2003) Practical English language teaching MC Gaw- Hill ESL: English as a second Language 19 Oxford, R (1990) Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know New York: Newbury House 20 Phan, L H (2005) Munby's 'Need Analysis' Model and ESP The Asian EFL Journal October.< http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/pta_october_07_plh.php> 21 Savignon, S J (1991) "Communicative language teaching: state of the art" Connecticut: Yale University Press 22 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 23 Widdowson, H G (1984) Educational and Pedagogic factors in syllabus design in Brumfit, C J (ed) ELT Documents Oxford: Pergamon Press 24 Willis, J (1996) Framework for Task base Learning Longman 25 Yalden, J (1987) Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press I APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE 10th FORM STUDENTS The aims of this questionnaire is to gather information for designing a supplementary English speaking syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai nguyen high school” We are grateful for your good will and cooperation in truthfully completing the questionnaire Please be assured that the information you provide w i l l be treated in the strictest confidence - Please tick the appropriate box to each question or write the answer where necessary Where you come from? - Countryside - Cities - Towns How long have you learnt English? - Since I was a grade student - Since I was a grade 10 student Are you studying English in other language institutions? - Yes - No What you study English for? (You can tick more than one answer) - Study -Work - A combination of study and work - Examination - Future study - Others (Please specify): How much you feel interested in speaking skill? a Very b rather c little d not at all How you like to practice speaking in class? Very much a Individua lly b Wit h a partner c In a small group d Wit h the whole class Much Rather Little Not at all II Does the pair/group work in speaking class help you? Yes No a Speak more in English b Feel more confident c Give you more opportunities for exchanging ideas d Learn more from each other What kinds of activities would you like to in pair/group work? Role playing Information gap Games Discussing Interviewing Conversation Problem-solving Brainstorming How often you take part in pair/group work in your speaking class? a Always b often c sometimes d never 10 How you find speaking activities in the textbook “ English 10"? a Forms of tasks Various monotonous/boring b Topics Various interesting monotonous/boring unfamiliar Others: 11.What topics would you like to speak about? School talk Undersea world People background Conversation of nature Daily activities National park Special education Music Technology Cinema and theater School outdoor activities The World Cup The mass media Typical/ Famous cities Life in community Historical places III 12 How you respond when your teachers provide supplementary speaking activities? a Work with great interest b Remain silent all the time c Chat with other group members about other topics d Speak Vietnamese 13 Do you agree with the following ideas? Strongly agree Agree Strongly disagree Disagree No idea a Supplementary speaking activities are the speaking lessons needed to make more interesting b Supplementary speaking activities needed for are students to develop their speaking ability c Applying supplementary activities is a waste of time and money 14 In your opinion, what role supplementary speaking activities play in motivating students to speak English? ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation! ... for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High school to help them develop their speaking skill 2 II The aim of the study The study is aimed at designing a supplementary English speaking syllabus. .. syllabus for the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School In order to achieve that ultimate aim, the study has to obtain the following objectives: + investigating the situations of Thai Nguyen High. .. vocabulary Although the 10th form students at Thai Nguyen High School have chances to practice English speaking, they not yet made their conversations in English spontaneously and naturally From the