Sử dụng các hoạt động đóng kịch để nâng cao động lực học tập và khả năng nói tiếng anh cho học sinh lớp 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ PHẤN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES IN ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL (Sử dụng hoạt động đóng kịch để nâng cao động lực học tập khả nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT Nam Cao) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ PHẤN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES IN ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL (Sử dụng hoạt động đóng kịch để nâng cao động lực học tập khả nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT Nam Cao) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh Hanoi, 2013 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify my authority of the Study Project Report entitled “THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES IN ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE A CASE STUDY AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Tran Thi Phan Hanoi, 2013 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, Dr Do Tuan Minh 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 pursue and finish the course I would also like to thank all the teachers at Nam Cao high school who kindly helped me to answer the survey questionnaire and give practical solutions Appreciation is also extended to 90 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school for their patience and prompt responses to the questionnaires Last but not least, I would like to thank, with all my heart, my family for encouraging me to finish this thesis ii ABSTRACT In recent years, mastering students’ oral communication is one of the ultimate goals of foreign language teaching However, in the reality, the teachers and students from Nam Cao high school have problems in teaching and learning English speaking This research was carried out to examine how the speaking skill of 10th graders at Nam Cao high school can be improved through using role play activities, and investigating the students’ attitudes toward using role play activities in teaching and learning English and the use of role play by teachers in teaching speaking skill as well The findings of study showed that role play activities are an effective teaching technique which should be widely exploited in teaching and learning English speaking to enhance 10th graders’ motivation and speaking performance In short, it is hoped that this thesis will help to improve the teaching and studying of speaking skill at Nam Cao high school iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality of study project report i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vi Table of figures vii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims and research questions Significance of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Thesis organization PART II: DEVELOPMENT .5 CHAPTER : LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Overview of motivation in language teaching 1.1.1 Definition of motivation 1.1.2 The importance of motivation in language learning 1.2 Speaking skill 1.2.1 Definition of speaking skill 1.2.2 Teaching speaking skill in Communicative Language teaching 1.2.3 Principles of teaching speaking 1.2.4 The components of speaking skill 1.2.5 A succesful speaking lesson in classroom 1.2.6 Activities to promote speaking 10 1.3 Overview of role play 11 1.3.1 Definition of role play 11 1.3.2 Types of role play .12 1.3.3 Stages of a standard role play 14 1.3.4 Significance of role play in teaching speaking .15 iv CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………………………………………………….… 17 2.1 Research hypothesis 17 2.2 Setting of the study .17 2.3 Participants of the study 17 2.4 General description of the curriculum of textbook Tiếng Anh 10 18 2.4.1 Overall design 18 2.4.2 The curriculum and textbook Tiếng Anh 10 18 2.4.3 Sections for speaking skills in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 19 2.5 Research instruments 20 2.6 Procedures of data collecion 21 2.7 Procedures of data anlaysis 22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION……………………………….23 3.1 Data analysis and discussion from Phase 1………………………………………… 23 3.1.1 Data analysis from Phase 1…………………………………………………………23 3.1.2 Discussion from Phase 1……………………………………………………………27 3.2 Data analysis and discussion from Phase 2………………………………………… 28 3.2.1 Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaires……………………………… 28 3.2.2 Data analysis from teachers’ questionnaires……………………………………… 30 3.2.3 Data analysis from classroom observation……………………………………… 34 3.2.4 Discussion from Phase 2……………………………… ………………………….33 PART III: CONCLUSION .36 Major findings of the study 36 Pedagogical implications 37 Limitations and suggestions for further studies……………………………………… 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT T Ss N % Communicative Language Teaching Teacher Students Number Percent vi TABLE OF FIGURES TABLES Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the importance of teaching and learning speaking skill Table 2: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill Table 3: Teachers’ and students’ evaluation towards speaking activities in the textbook English 10 Table 4: Students’ knowledge towards the term “role play” Table 5: Frequency of role play activities in speaking lessons Table 6: Results from students’ survey questionnaires Table 7: Teachers’ opinions towards the importance of role play activities in speaking lessons Table 8: Ways of motivating students to take part in role play activities Table 9: Teachers’ preparation for role play activities Table 10: Best time for teachers to implement role play activities in speaking lessons Table 11: Ways of organizing the class for role play activities in speaking lessons Table 12: Kinds of correction techniques used in giving feedback on students’ doing role-play activities Table 13: Teachers’ evaluation of students’ improvement in speaking ability after using role play activities Table 14: Teachers’ expectation towards integrating role play activities in speaking lessons CHARTS Chart 1: Language used by students in speaking lesson Chart 2: Teachers’ and students’ self-evaluation towards students’ speaking ability vii viii very much Thus, it is obvious that role play had a great impact on students’ speaking performance Table 14: Teachers’ expectation towards integrating role play activities in speaking lessons (Please refer to question in Appendix 4) Options N of Ts % of Ts Yes 100 No 0 Surprisingly, as shown in the table, all of the teachers expected that role play activities should be integrated in English speaking lessons The reason may lie in the inappropriate and difficult activities in the textbook It can be concluded that integrating role play activities in speaking lessons will make a great contribution to the success of a speaking lesson as well as students’ speaking competence 3.2.3 Data analysis from class observation Based on four class observations of the researcher, it was clearly seen that there was a considerable improvement of the students’ motivation and speaking performance More and more students were willing to participate in speaking English without any forces from the teachers Also, students became more and more active and confident in doing role play activities and they had more strong motivation of speaking English in class The number of students who were passive in speaking lessons and afraid of speaking English in front of the class decreased considerably In addition, through role play activities, students used more the target language (English) than the mother tongue Using the mother tongue only existed in the small number of students Also, using role play activities in pairs or groups increased students’ interaction ability with other students Students can take turns more and more quickly and appropriately In terms of students’ speaking performance, it can be seen that though some of the students still made some 34 mistakes including pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency, the number of those who did had reduced To sum up, role play activities are a useful technique in enhancing students’ motivation and speaking performance 3.2.4 Discussion from Phase The findings of the second phase clearly showed that the use of role play activities in speaking classes had significantly contributed to both the improvement of the students’ motivation and their speaking performance Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that the students’ speaking skills had improved considerably after implementing role play activities in speaking lessons Thus, it is clear that role play activities should be applied in teaching speaking skills for 10th graders at Nam Cao high school 35 PART III: CONCLUSION Major findings of the study This study focused on using role play activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders at Nam Cao high school Basing on the result of the analysis of the data, it is proven that there is much improvement of students’ motivation and performance in speaking lessons using role play activities From the findings of the study, research questions were respectively dealt with Regarding to research question “What are the attitudes of students at Nam Cao high school towards using role-play activities in a speaking lesson?” the findings from the students’ survey questionnaire showed that 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 Role play activities help students lower anxiety and develop confidence They felt relaxed and enjoyable during their speaking performance Surprisingly, the use of mother tongue decreased considerably Understanding the effectiveness of role play activities, the majority of students expected that role play should be integrated in speaking lessons With regard to research question “How teachers of English at Nam Cao high school teach speaking to 10th grade students with role play activities?”, the findings showed that the majority of the teachers were aware of the importance of role play as an effective technique to enhance students’ motivation and speaking performance Despite the fact that there are many ways to motivate students to take part in role play activities, teachers should consider appropriate ways for different students at different levels All of the teachers suggested that giving students useful suggestions related to the topic and clear instructions before role play were effective ways to motivate students to take part in role play activities In the context of high school, they seldom let students choose topics themselves to discuss and the partners to work with To prepare for role play activities, teachers suggested that 36 they should provide students with background information on the topic and preteach necessary vocabulary and structures In addition, the best time to implement role play activities in speaking lessons was while- speaking stage and post-speaking stage Besides, pair work or group work are ways used by teachers to organize role play activities in speaking lesson Teachers should use peer correction and teacher correction in giving feedback on students’ doing role play activities Self-correction was also a kind of technique used in giving feedback on students’ performance It can be concluded that self-correction, peer correction, and teacher correction can be used; however, the frequency in using each type of correction technique should be varied As for research question “In what ways role-play activities improve motivation and speaking performance of 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school?”, from the findings of the study, it can be concluded that not only the students’ speaking performance but also their motivation had improved significantly from the first phase to the second one All students and teachers agreed that role play activities should be integrated in speaking lessons In conclusion, role play activities are really an effective teaching technique which should be widely recognized and exploited in teaching and learning English speaking to 10th grade students’ speaking skills Pedagogical implications The success in teaching does not depend on the lesson program only, but more important is how the teacher presents the lesson and uses various techniques to manage the class more lively and enjoyable Regarding to the teaching speaking by using role play, the writer gives some suggestions for the teacher and students as follows: For the teacher: The teacher should choose the materials that are appropriate and not too difficult for the students A well-planned lesson is always necessary to contribute to the effectiveness of role play activities Teachers should consider the main points in 37 their lesson plans when deciding to choose any role play activities: the purpose of the activity, the length of the lesson and students’ ability Before assigning the role play to the students, the teacher should give the instructions simply to make sure that the students have fully understood and have the information they need In addition, instructions should not be too long and easy to understand Before doing role play, teachers should provide students with linguistic preparation such as vocabulary, structures or patterns that students need to carry out the task and also some useful strategies for expressing ideas or opinions When students are working in pairs and groups, the teacher should keep control the students’ activities The teacher should present the language in an enjoyable, relaxed and understandable way Teachers should give corrective feedback on students’ performance at the end of the task to avoid distracting students The role of the teacher Some of the possible teacher roles are: - Facilitator: Students may need new language to be 'fed' in by the teacher If rehearsal time is appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage - Spectator: The teacher watches the role-play and offers comments and advice at the end - Participant: It is sometimes appropriate to get involved and take part in the roleplay yourself For the students: The students are hoped not to be shy in acting out their role The students are hoped to be active and creative in enriching their vocabularies The students are hoped to use English when they practice role play activities although it is hard for them 38 The students should take part much in acting out role play The students should ask to the teacher if there is something that they don’t understand regarding to the role play activities Limitations and suggestions for further studies Despite the researcher’s great efforts to find out the use of role play in teaching speaking skill to 10th graders at Nam Cao high school, due to the limitation of time and experience, mistakes and limits are unavoidable in this study The first limitation is about the population of the study The subjects of the study were only 90 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school So, further studies should also investigate into the larger subjects Secondly, due to the limitation of time the researcher could not recheck the effectiveness of role play activities in this paper Therefore, to get a more reliable and complete result further studies may combine different tools for data collection like pre-test, post-test and proficiency tests as research instruments which help to accurately assess the students’ speaking ability before and using role play activities respectively Finally, the researcher carried out the study with the hope to find out the use of role play to develop speaking skill Further studies should have a deeper insight into the exploitation of others communicative activities to develop speaking skill 39 REFERENCES Donn Byrne, Teaching Oral English: Longman Handbooks for English Teacher, (Singapore: Longman Group, 1986), p 115 Dornyei, Z (2001), Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Gina, W (2001), The Postgraduate Research Handbook, New York: Palgrave Huebner, Theodore, Audio Visual Technique in Foreign Language New York: Cambridge University Press, 1960 Harris, P.D (1969), Testing English as a second language, McGraw-Hill, USA Hayriye, K (2006) Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language The Internet TESL Journal, 12 (11) Kayi, H (November 2006), “Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language”, The Internet TESL Journal, Vol XII (11), retrieved on from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kayi-TeachingSpeaking.html, pp 1-2 Le Van Canh (2004), Understanding Foreign Language Methodology, CFL VNUH Littlewood, W (1994), Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 51 – 57 10 Littlewood, T.W (1984), Foreign and Second Language Learning, CUP 11 Maley, A (1987) Role Play, OUP, pp 108 12 Longman dictionary of Contemporary English 13 Nunan D (1992), Research Methods in Language Learning, CUP, Cambridge 14 Nunan, D (1999), Second Language Teaching and Learning, Thomson / Heinle, Boston, pp 32 15 Nunan, D (2003), Practical English Language Teaching, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, pp 48 16 Ur, P (1996), A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 121 40 17 Ur, P (2000), A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 242 18 Williams, M and Burden, R (1997), Psychology for Language Teachers, CUP, Cambridge 19 Woolfolk, A (2001), 8th ed, Educational Psychology, Allyn Bacon, A Pearsoson Education Company, United States 20 http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kayi-Teaching Speaking.html 21 http://ebookbrowse.com/skripsi-using-role-play-in-teaching-speaking-pdfd183222236 22 http://findpdf.net/pdf-viewer/IS-ROLEPLAYING-AN-EFFECTIVETEACHING-METHOD-A.html 23 http://www.scn.org/ip/cds/cmp/modules/tm-rply.htm 24 http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/role-play 41 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR STUDENTS This survey is designed to collect information about the real condition of the classroom problems in the English teaching and learning process at Nam Cao high school I am grateful for your cooperation in completing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option What you think about the importance of learning speaking skill at high school? A Very important B Important C Not very important How much are you interested in learning speaking skills? A Very much B Not very much C Not at all Which language you often use in speaking lessons? A Using English only B Using more English than Vietnamese C Using more Vietnamese than English D Using Vietnamese only What is your opinion about your speaking ability? A Poor B Average C Good D Very good E Excellent How can you evaluate speaking activities in the textbook English 10? I A Difficult B Difficult but interesting C Interesting D Easy To what extent you know about the term “role-play”? A It is an activity in which students are put in the real situations B It is an activity which provide students with the chances to practice speaking in a creative way C Both of them D No idea Thank you for your co-operation! II APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR TEACHERS This survey is designed to collect information about the real condition of the classroom problems in the English teaching and learning process at Nam Cao high school I am grateful for your cooperation in completing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option What you think about the importance of teaching speaking skill at high school? A Very important B Important C Not very important What is your opinion about your students’ speaking ability? A Poor B Average C Good D Very good E Excellent How can you evaluate speaking activities in the textbook English 10? A Difficult B Difficult but interesting C Interesting D Easy How often are role-play activities organized in your speaking lessons? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Seldom E Never Thank you for your co-operation! III APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed and conducted to find out students’ attitudes towards applying or using role play activities in speaking lessons to developing speaking skills for the students I am grateful for your co-operation in finishing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussions of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option Do you like doing role-play activities in your speaking lessons? A Yes B No How you feel while you are doing role-play activities? A Vey excited B Excited C Bored C Nothing Which language you use in role-play activities? A Using English only B Using more English than Vietnamese C Using more Vietnamese than English D Using Vietnamese only Do you think using role play activities in English speaking classes can help improve your speaking skills? A Yes B No How can role play activities help motivate you in the speaking lesson? A Role play activities lower anxiety and develop confidence B Role play activities give me chances to practice actual situations in real life C Role play allows me to interact with other members in class D Role play makes them feel relaxed and enjoyable IV How can you evaluate your improvement in speaking ability after using role play activities in speaking lesson? A Very much B A little C Not at all Should role play activities be integrated in speaking lessons? A Yes B No Thank you for your co-operation! V APPENDIX 4: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is designed and conducted to investigate the use of role play by teachers to teach speaking skill and teachers’ evaluation towards applying or using role play activities in speaking lessons to developing speaking skills for the students I am grateful for your co-operation in finishing this questionnaire Please be assured that you will not be identified in any discussions of the data Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions You may choose more than one option In your opinion, how important are role-play activities in motivating speaking skills for students? A Very important B Important C Not important at all How can you motivate your students to take part in role-play activities in speaking lessons? A Let students choose topics themselves to discuss B Let students choose the partners to work with C Give students some useful suggestions related to the topic D Give students clear instructions before role play E Others How you prepare for role-play activities for your students? A Design suitable role-play activities for students B Provide students with background information on the topic C Pre-teach necessary vocabulary and structures D Prepare authentic materials and teaching aids When is the best time for teachers to role-play activities in speaking lessons? A Warm up B Pre- speaking C While- speaking VI D Post- speaking How you organize your class for doing role-play activities? A Divide the class into pairs B Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students C Either Which kind of correction techniques you often use in giving feedback on your students’ doing role-play activities? A Self-correction B Peer correction C Teacher correction D All of them How can you evaluate your students’ improvement in speaking ability after using role play activities in speaking lesson? A Very much B A little C Not at all Should role play activities be integrated in speaking lessons? A Yes B No Thank you for your co-operation! VII ... ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL (Sử dụng hoạt động đóng kịch để nâng cao động lực học tập khả nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT Nam Cao) ... textbook Tiếng Anh 10 18 2.4.1 Overall design 18 2.4.2 The curriculum and textbook Tiếng Anh 10 18 2.4.3 Sections for speaking skills in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 19... randomly selected classes 10B and 10G at Nam Cao high school participating in this research They are both male and female All of them are at grade 10th at Nam Cao high school that have been learning