Applying debate technique to help the 12th form students at tan ky high school to improve speaking skill

PART I: INTRODUCTION This part discusses the rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions, the significances and the scope of the study The methods and the design of the research are also presented in this part I Rationale of the study While there are hundreds of different types of languages spoken in hundreds of countries resulting in the language barriers, English serves as a bridge to connect people all over the world English is certainly the most common international language in the globe due to the fact that English is used in many sectors including Economy, Policy, Diplomacy, Tourism, Medicine, Science and Technology, etc Therefore, learning English as a second language or foreign language are very fundamental especially for Vietnamese students at universities, for the ability to speak English is one of the principle requirements of employees and stakeholders alike to meet the demands of the global economy Additionally, in accordance with the National Ministry of Education in Kepmendiknas No 22/2006 who states that English is a tool for communicating both in written and oral, we may conclude the main goal of study English in school is as a preparation of communicating with other people, in any context, when English is required Of four main skills named speaking, writing, reading and listening, Bailey (1993) says that speaking is the center skill and the most demanding As a result, although a good performance in English requires students to be competently in all aspects: reading, writing, speaking and listening, English teachers are expected to focus on guiding their learners to master speaking ability fluently and correctly Nowadays, more and more people desire to become skilled at English speaking However, at many high schools and universities in Vietnam in general and Tan Ky High school in particular, speaking English is not a favorite skill In fact, last year, the researcherdiscovered that many students were quite passive in speaking classes and seemed to be shy to share ideas with other students or the teacher Furthermore, they seem to not be interested in speaking lessons Hence, to speak English precisely and fluently turns out to be a big challenge indeed This finding was supported by ideas from the students and some other teachers who teach English at Tan Ky High school that speaking classes were often ineffective because students rarely interact in English Among some activities enriching students’ ability to speak English like: game and role-play in CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) accordance to Littlewood (2008) or in order to raise the students’ voice in the speaking classes, various activities have been suggested for English speaking class such as group work, discussion, pair-work, simulation and games (Kayi, 2006; Nunan, 2003; Burns, Anne and Joyce, 1997) Debate is one of these techniques and is not the new one but it helps to develop strong listening skills, self-confident (Bradley, 1959) Maryadi (2008) states that debate can motivate students thinking, moreover if they must defend their stand or opinion which is in contradiction with conviction of them This strategy can involve all students to be active, not only debate performer One study reveals that debate tends to encourage students to use their linguistic knowledge in real communication context and situation, especially in oral communication; it increases their ability and capability in speaking English (Mabrur, 2002) But, debate technique hasn’t been used widely and frequently for teaching speaking at Tan Ky High school All reasons mentioned above have inspired the researcher to carry out the study titled “Applying debate technique to help the 12 th form students at Tan Ky High school to improve speaking skill” II Aims of study The main aims of the study are: * To investigate the effectiveness of using the debate technique in developing students’ speaking ability in speaking classes * To the students’ perception toward the speaking classes in which teacher use debate as a teaching technique III Research questions In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, some questions are formulated as follow: 1) Whether or not using debate technique in teaching speaking can improve speaking skills of the 12th grade students at Tan Ky High school? 2) What are the students’ perceptions toward debate in speaking lessons? IV.Significance of the Study The present research is believed to have several significances for theoretical, practical, and professional benefits * Theoretical benefit The research findings can be used as the contribution toward the research about using debate technique to teach English speaking * Practical benefit The research findings will be useful to teachers, students and also the readers who are interested in teaching English especially for those in Tan Ky High School environment It is expected to help teachers to get alternative ways in their teaching process, especially by using debate * Professional benefit The research problem can help teachers to improve the quality of teaching, students’ relationship, and to create an interesting study environment in English speaking classroom This innitiative helps the writer to develop her knowledge and experience in composing academic writing V The scope of study Due to the limitation of time and the researcher’s knowledge, the object of this study is focused on teaching speaking using debate method in a few speaking classes of twelveth grade students at Tan Ky High school (class 12C1 and 12C9) VI Methods of the study In order to set up a firm theoretical background for the study, relevant publications are critically reviewed Experimental Method was applied to answer the research questions To collect the data, the following techniques have been applied: Survey questionnaire , speaking oral tests( namely pre-test and post-test), video-based observation VII Population and sample Population The population of this research was the twelveth grade students in two classes (12C1 &12C9) in Tan Ky High school Sample On the whole, the participants of this study: Applying lesson plans using debate technique : class 12C9 Teaching without using debate technique : class 12C1 VIII Design of research work The research work has four main parts: Introduction, Development, Discussions and Findings and Conclusion Part 1: The “Introduction” consists of the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the significance, the method and the design of the study Part 2: The “ Development” consists of two chapters: a.Chapter one is entitled “Literature Review” This chapter reviews the previous studies, the literature review in brief, the definition of speaking English, teaching speaking, as well as the definition of debate, the advantages and disadvantages of using debate in teaching speaking English b Chapter two is entitled “Methodology” It describes the research method used in this research It is composed of the description of the subjects and procedures of making research Part 3: The “Discussions and Findings” presents the result of research and the analysis of the data Part 4: In the “Conclusion” the researcher gives a brief summary of the study and also provide some limitations and suggestions based on the findings as well PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter involves the literature review in brief, some issues related to speaking English, teaching speaking English and debate I.1 Speaking English I.1.1 Origin of speaking English Of all four key language skills, speaking is deemed to be the most important in learning a second or foreign language It is explained in various ways by a number of experts According to Brown and Yule (1983), speaking is the skill that the students will be judged upon most in real-life situations It is an important part of everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person based on his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehensively Speaking can be defined as a communicative procedure focusing on meaning construction that engages in creating, obtaining and processing information (Burns & Joyce, 1997) Speaking ability though refers to verbal communication ability in a practical, functional and precise way using the target language Speaking is an important skill and the main key to communication for both ESL/EFL learners and teachers Chaney (1998) stated that speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts According to Scoot (2005:79) “Speaking is consider as the productive and oral skill Speaking is a cognitive skill, is the idea that knowledge became increase automatically through successive practice” According to Nunan (2003:48) “Speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning” Alternatively, Nunan (1999: 216) indicates that speaking requires learners to not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence") Adopted these previous definitions, the researcher can conclude that speaking is a process of sharing with others knowledge, interest, attitudes, opinions or ideas And speaking skill is the ability to say, to address, to make known, to use or be able to use a given language in the actual communication In the light of these highlighted definitions, the researcher can compose an operational definition of speaking skill in this study as speaking is the ability to produce meaningful utterance or discourse orally to address other people and to be accurate in using grammar and vocabulary I.1.2 Teaching speaking English Many teachers agree that students should learn to speak the second language by interacting with others So, students should master several speaking components such as comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency In brief, English teachers should be creative in developing their teaching/ learning process to create good atmosphere, improve the students' speaking skill, give attention to the speaking components, and make the English lesson more exiting For this reason, the English teacher should apply appropriate methods and techniques of teaching speaking The method used by the teacher is communicative approach In general, to communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed For example, a statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses regret As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies, in accordance with the speaker's intention, the attitude being expressed which is realized in the language Therefore, some researchers and experts have tried to assign the notion of teaching speaking like Nunan (2003:48) who has clarified it as to teach English language learners to: produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns; use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting situation and subject matter; organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence; use language as a means of expressing values and judgments, and use language quickly and confidently Nunan (2003: 55, 56) also proposes five principles for teaching speaking Below are the descriptions: a Be aware of the differences between foreign language and second language learning context Personally, teaching speaking is the way for students to express their emotions, communicative needs, interact with other people in any situation, and influence the others For this reason, in teaching speaking skill it is necessary to have clear understanding involved in speech While foreign language context is one where the target language is not the language of communication in society, second language is b Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy Accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people actually say when they use the target language Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc Teacher must provide students with fluency-building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new language c Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limit teacher talk It is important for us as language teachers to be aware of how much we are talking in class so we not take up all the time the students could be talking Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons d Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning Learners make progress by communicating in the target language because interaction necessarily involves trying to understand and make teacher understood This process is called negotiating for meaning It involves checking to see if you have understood what someone has said, clarifying your understanding, and confirming that someone has understood your meaning e Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and interactional speaking When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually it for interactional or transactional purposes Interactional speech is communicatingwith someone for social purposes Transactional speech involves communicating to get something done, including the exchange of goods and/or services I.2 Debate I.2.1 Understanding debate Debate is well enough known as arguing ideas between two opposite sites demands students to be able to defend their opinions so it requires good ability to speak English well A debate is about the real or simulated issue The learners’ roles ensure that they have adequate shared knowledge about the issue and different opinions or interest to defend At the end of activity, they may have to reach a concrete decision or put the issue to a vote (Littlewood, 1981) As Quinn (2005) said in his book, Debate, “debating give you chance to meet new people and new ideas Best of all, you have the opportunity to stand up and argue with someone in public, in a stimulating and organized dispute about real issues” (p.1) It means that facilitates student to discuss their ideas and try to convince people Debating is an important and interesting way to discuss issues facing our society Students have to speak with some evidences and defend their opinions to win the debate Debate allows students to know many different people with different ideas Another opinion comes from Mulholland (2002) that in a formal debate, a strong developed personal need and strong social preference are presented for manageable agreement and disagreement The two intertwined and affect the formulation of a very high proportion of speech behaviors produces in interaction It means that debate has a huge amount of interaction role among people because people want a confession of ideas about disagreement In presenting the confession, the debate will strongly show their characteristic of speech behaviors during interaction Based on opinions above the researcher can assume that debate is a more communicative interaction that involves opposite point of views and builds critical and strong characteristics In form of classroom debate, it presents opportunities for students to engage and use extended chuck of language for a purpose toconvincingly defend one side of an issue Debates are most appropriate for intermediate and advanced learners who have been guided in how to prepare for them Debate is an activity in which students take up positions on issue and defend their position; therefore to prepare students for debate, teachers have to make sure that students have been given all the necessary information in order to research and present their side of the issue I.2.2 The benefits of debate Some people believe in debate as training for law or politics Actually for the vast majority of debaters, participating in debate is about training for everyday life Debating can be the ultimate multi-task school activity since it involves research, writing, speaking, listening and teamwork Adapted from a journal by Kennedy, debate as an active instructional strategy is aimed to enhance learning particularly in the areas of mastering the content and active engagement, developing critical thinking skill, oral communication skills and empathy a Mastering the content and active engagement Students learn more affectively by actively analyzing, discussing and applying content in meaningful ways rather than by passively absorbing information Students learn best when applying what they are learning In the class, debate cultivates active engagement of students and placing the responsibility of comprehension for individual and teamwork Debate encourages students to re-read and re-think both their own and the opposing position more intensely than is necessary to repeat lecture material The students’ approach dramatically changes from a passive approach to an active one Through debate, students can improve their comprehension toward the issues b Developing critical thinking skills Because debate requires listeners and participants to evaluate ideas, it develops higher-order psychological functions as well as critical thinking skills The lower order thinking skills of knowledge, comprehensions and application focus on rote learning or what students should think, whereas the higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluate focus on how to think c Oral communication skills Students with debate experience are significantly better at employing the three communication skills: analysis, delivery and organization The students receive extensive criticism and feedback and measure against established educational standards so they have to show fluent explanation, exact pronunciation and use correct grammar Implementing debate in speaking class can help students to achieve over standards d Developing empathy When students debate they listen to both sides of the argument They see both sides, rather than just seeing it from one point of view Debate is one way to minimize instructor bias By learning both side of a controversial topic, student are more open-minded and better able to see another person’s view debate also provides opportunities to developing empathy as students give consideration to various viewpoints I.2.3 The disadvantages of debate In the learning process, debate has limitations too According to Malley and Pierce (as cited in Rubiati, 2010), there are many disadvantages of debate while using it in the classroom Firstly, debate technique only can be used for specific subjects, such as subjects that are concerned with agreeing and disagreeing and giving argument Secondly, debate needs a long times for preparation Much preparation is needed in debating in order to make sure that the debate runs well Students should prepare their arguments before the debate to make it easier for them to attack the opponent’s opinion Finally, it requires the students to be controlled in defending their argument Many students can’t control their emotion when they defend their opinions Although it has these disadvantages, it seems that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages in the development of English speaking Moreover, its disadvantages can be minimized by the teachers I.2.4 Debate to improve speaking skill One of the ways to encourage students to improve their speaking skill is by using debate Debate can present opportunities for students to express their own ideas and thinking about the topic Therefore, debate builds students’ confidence and makes their speaking skill more perfect by practicing frequently “Debates require extensive preparation by learners, call for interaction in groups and make use of at least the following language functions: describing, explaining, giving and asking for information, agreeing and disagreeing” (Malley and Pierce, 1969, p.87.) Besides, debate in speaking class can improve students’ critical thinking and students’ communication skill By performing debate students have a lot of opportunities in practicing speaking and they will be encouraged to become flexible users of their knowledge, always keeping the communicate goal in mind In conclusion, there are variety of techniques and methods to make the speaking lessons more interesting and effective such as: Acting from script, communication games, discussion, prepared talk, and so on However, debate technique as the literature above shows is effective, interesting and easy to apply in speaking lesson Besides, debate was a challenging and highly rewarding activity for those who were involved and allows students to share and cooperate with one another It educates students with responsibility, encourages creativity and deepens friendship Nonetheless, this technique is not used frequently in teaching in Vietnam and students’ perceptions towards the use of Debate Technique refer to students’ views, opinions, and beliefs in their speaking ability, and learning through debate are not determined clearly The potential effectiveness of debate and the way to create debate in speaking lesson has been demonstrated in a number of research studies but it not for all schools or universities If the study time had been extended, the result might have been different I.2.5 Components and formats of a debate in speaking classes Components of debate There are different types of debate and it is important that you know what kind of debate you will be participating in There are somethings, however, that all debate formats have in common: The resolution: there is a resolution of policy or value that provides the basic substance of the discussion The terms of this resolution will be defined by the first speaker of the debate The affirmative group and the negative group: They are two teams 10 carrying out such a study, the researcher hopes to enrich the empirical studies in this field of teaching/learning speaking skills 34 PART IV CONCLUSION All contents of the research will be summarized in this chapter and then some limitations and some suggestions will be dedicated so that the findings in this study could really bring some benefits for teachers of English, students especially high school students and for future studies IV.1 Summary of the study The conclusion of research obtained that using classroom debate is an effective technique to improve students’ speaking skill The EG showed a noticeable improvement after they learnt classroom debate It can be proved by the research findings that have been explained in data analysis (see chapter III: Discussions and findings) Their average scores in vocabulary, fluency, pronunciation, grammar and especially interaction were increased after being taught speaking by debate technique It meant that, no longer did they feel difficult to find words to express their ideas as well as had no used misused vocabulary Students could pronounce the words correctly or even sounds really interesting In addition, the more they learned speaking by using debate technique, the longer their answers were The teacher could see clearly that the students no longer hesitated to speak and they did not show lapses or halting After practicing classroom debate, students did not feel difficult to follow what was said any more and they could understand almost everything in normal speed They could understand English expression and no more repetition to understand the message Another thing should be mentioned here is that on students’ speech, they could use right tenses as well as varied grammar structures and difficult ones sometimes Based on the findings from observation, we could say that after a period of time learning in the speaking class using debate technique, students felt more confident to share their ideas and enjoyed the class activities They became more active in speaking lessons and could work in group effectively Finally, it can be seen that there was a significant improvement after the students learnt and practiced debate in speaking class IV.2 Limitations Although the study has accomplished the objectives set at the beginning, it cannot avoid some limitations Coming at first is the participants involving in this study Although, debate technique can be used for all high school students, the chosen participants (the sample) are only the ones in class 12C1 and 12C9 Therefore, further studies can extend the number of participant in order to confirm the generalization of the research results 35 The second limitation that is worthwhile to note is due to the shortage of time, researcher can only experiment on the effectiveness of debate which was only applied within some lessons which unavoidably affected the reliability and validity of the final result Next, the researcher only solves the problem happening in speaking class Further studies can drill and fix the same problem happening in reading, writing or listening Finally, mistakes are unavoidable, all comments and remarks on this research will be highly appreciated IV.3 Suggestions for further studies This research has proved that classroom debate is an effective technique to teach speaking It has been tested by the data gained during the research However, the researcher would like to gives some suggestions as follows: Firstly, English is a foreign language but the needs to be able to speak English right now is very demanded, teacher should be more creative in teaching English Debate technique is highly recommended to teach speaking along with the other ones like: information gap, story completion or describe pictures, etc Since it has been experimentally studied and tested in this research Secondly, debate is a new technique to be used in the speaking classes so teacher should give more explanations to make sure that they understand its format and know what to In the speaking lessons, the teacher should not apply only one format of debate but combine some of them in order not to make students get bored and to create an interesting and lively study atmosphere In addition, it is better for teachers to bring interesting and current topics to be the motion on the classroom debate The last suggestion for the researchers and the teachers is that they should pay more attention to the progress four speaking components (fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar) and how confident they are while speaking Teachers should also give time for students to evaluate these components with their partners so that students will be able to correct their mistakes and create a trend of studentcentered learning 36 REFERENCES Aron, A., Coups, E.J., & Aron, E.N (2011) Statistics for the behavioral and social sciences: A brief course.(5th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Bailey, K (1983) Competitiveness and Anxiety in Adult Second Language Learning: Looking at and through the Diary Studies in Seliger and Long (eds.) Bradley, B.E (1959) Debate – A Practical Training for Gifted Students The Speech Teacher 7, pp38-134 Brown, D.H (2004) Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practices Harlow, CM: Longman Brown, G & Yule G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge: CUP Burns, Anne & Joyce, H (1997) Focus on Speaking North Ryde, N.S.W.: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research Chaney, A.L (1998) Teaching Oral Communication In: Grandes K-8 Boston: Allyn and Bacon Creswell, J.W (2008) Educational research; Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research New Jersey: Person Education, p.26 English Language Learners, Addison-Wesley Company Inc: 1996 Fraenkel, J.R & Wallen, N.E (2003) How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education( Fifth Edition).New York: McGraw- Hill, p.268 Harmer, J (2003) The Practice of English Language Teaching England: Longman, p344 Jackson, S.L (2006) Research Methods and statistics: A critical thinking approach Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth Johnson, H.A & Griffith, P (1985) The behavioural structure of an eighth-grade science class A mainstream preparation strategy Volta Review 87, 291-303 Kayi, H (2006) Teaching speaking: activities to promote speaking in a second language University of Nevada, Nevada, USA 37 Kennedy, R (2007) In-Class Debates: Fertile Ground for Active Learning and the Cultivation of Critical Thinking and Oral Communication Skills International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education; Vol 19,No.2 Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Kennedy, R (2007) In-class Debates: Fertile Group for Active Learning and the Cultivate of Critical Thinking and Oral Communication Skills, International Journal of Teaching in Higher Education, No19, pp183-185 Khoironiyah, K (2012) The Implementation of Debate in Teaching Speaking at Eleventh Year Students of SMA, Nigeria Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching, UK: Cambridge University Press Mabrur (2002) Skripsi Madrasah Aliyah Salafiyah Merakurak McLeod,S.A (2007) Experimental Design Retrieved from: www.simplypsychology.org/experimental-designs.html Mulholland, J (2002) The Language of Negotiation London: Routledge pp.67-68 Nunan, D (2003) Practical English Language Teaching.McGrawHill Education Nuraeni, S (2014), The Effectiveness of Classroom Debate to Improve Students’ Speaking Skill Syarif Hidayatullah’ State Islamic University Jakarta O’ Malley, Michael, J & Pierce, L.V (1969) Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners Addison-Wesley Company Inc Pinardi, P.A.C and Taloko, J.L (2013) Teachers’ & Students’ Perceptions on The Implementation of The English Debate Training in a Vocational High School in Surabaya Vocational High School in Surabaya Quinn, S.R (2005) Debating Brisbane: International Debate Education Association, p.1 Rasool, S (2012) Experimental Research Retrieved https://www.slideshare.net/uroojshafqat/experimental11401013 from: research- Rubiati, R (2010) Improving Students’ Speaking Ability through Debate Technique, Semarang: IAIN Walisongo Semarang Scoot,T (2005)" How to Teach Speaking" Longman, 38 England Shuttleworth, M (2009) Pretest-Posttest Designs Retrieved from: https://explorable.com/pretest-posttest-designs Taloko, L (2013) Teachers’ & Students’ Perceptions on The Implementation of The English Debate Training in a Vocational High School in Surabaya Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya Trochim, M.K (2006) Quasi-experimental Design Research Methods Knowledge Base Retrieved from: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/quasiexp.php Trudeau, R.H (2006) Get Them to Read, Get Them to Talk: Using Discussion Forums to Enhance Student Learning Vogt, P (2005) Dictionary of statistics and methodology: A nontechnical guide for the social science (3rd.ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Zare, P & Othman, M (2013) Students’ Perceptions toward Using Classroom Debate to Develop Critical Thinking and Oral Communication Ability University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia 39 APPENDIX A Name Class: Survey-questionnaire for students of class 12C9 at Tan Ky High school This questionnaire is conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the debate activities applied in two speaking lessons through your participation Your opinion would be very useful in helping improving activities to encourage students learning speaking English Do you find more interested in speaking class? A Yes B No C Not really Do you think debate is a challenging activity? A Yes B No C Not really Do you find the activities in the previous classes attracting you? A Yes B No C Not really Do you speak more than usual? A Yes B No C Not really Do you feel more confident to speak in front of the class? A Yes B No C Not really Do you think you want to talk more thanks to those activities? A Yes B No C Not really Do you think that debate should be applied in teaching speaking? A Yes B No Other comments: This is the end of this survey Thank you for your co-operation APPENDIX B A SPEAKING RUBRIC Grammar 5: Excellent Use variety of structures and difficult ones 4: Good Able to speak with sufficient structural accuracy 3: Average Able to speak with sufficient structural accuracy and errors are rare 2: Poor Can handle elementary constructions but still make mistakes Vocabulary 1: Very poor Errors are frequent 5: Excellent Show the ability to use variety of words which may be interesting and unusual and their synonym as well as antonym 4: Good Able to speak the language with sufficient vocabulary related in the topic 3: Average Have speaking sufficient to express themselves simply with some circumlocution Fluency 2: Poor Can only use simple words 1: Very poor Can’t express his/her own ideas 5: Excellent Have ability to give a long answer 4: Good Can discuss particular interests of competence with reasonable ease 3: Average Give complete answers fluently 2: Poor Gives short answers and blah words are frequent 1: Very poor Use too much blah words and give too short or incomplete answers Pronunciation 5: Excellent Pronounce in the correct way and know how to put the stress on words 4: Good Errors in pronunciation are quite rare 3: Average Errors in pronunciation are rare 2: Poor Accent is intelligible though often quite faulty Interaction 1: Very poor Errors in pronunciation are frequent 5: Excellent Have strong voice, use gestures confidently and understands completely what examiner talking about as well as knows how to response 4: Good Confident enough, can use eye contact and responses precisely 3: Average Can understand the conversation and knows how to response 2: Poor Feel difficult to understand the conversation 1: Very poor Don’t understand what examiner is saying APPENDIX C CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET Observers: Teacher: Date: Week: Questions No Answers Yes No Did the student show the enthusiasm to follow the lesson? Did the student pay attention when other students were talking? Was the student active during the lesson? Could the student follow and apply the debate format well? Could the student co-operate with others effectively? Was the student excited to speak? Could the student express their ideas fluently and confidently? Other comments: APPENDIX D: VIDEOS Video 1: “House – Husband: Good or Bad?” Video 2: “Students should be free from homework?” TABLE OF CONTENT PART I: INTRODUCTION I Rationale of the study II Aims of study III Research questions IV Significance of the Study .3 V The scope of study VI Methods of the study VII Population and sample .4 VIII Design of research work PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 Speaking English I.1.1 Origin of speaking English I.1.2 Teaching speaking English I.2 Debate I.2.1 Understanding debate .8 I.2.2 The benefits of debate .9 I.2.3.The disadvantages of debate 10 I.2.4.Debate to improve speaking skill 10 I.2.5.Components and formats of a debate in speaking classes 11 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY II.1 Research design 15 II.2 Research context 15 II.2.1.Population… 15 II.2.2.Research instruments 15 II.2.3.Planning 18 II.2.4.The application of debate technique in teaching speaking skill 18 II.2.4.1 Some topics can be used for debating when teaching speaking skill .1 II.2.4.2 Demo Lesson .20 II.2.4.3.Some videos recorded during the lessons applying debate technique……………………………………………………………………… 24 II.2.4.4 Some photos indicating the teaching and learning process in class .24 II.2.5.Data collection procedure 25 II.2.6 Data analysis procedure 25 PART III: DISCUSSIONS AND FINDINGS III.1 Finding of pre-test and post-test 26 III.2 Finding of the questionnaire 28 III.3 Finding of video-based observation 29 III.4 Discussions 29 PART IV: CONCLUSION IV.1 Summary of the study 33 IV.2 Limitations 33 IV.3 Suggestions for further study 34 REFERENCES 37 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B ... teaching speaking at Tan Ky High school All reasons mentioned above have inspired the researcher to carry out the study titled ? ?Applying debate technique to help the 12 th form students at Tan Ky High. .. questions are formulated as follow: 1) Whether or not using debate technique in teaching speaking can improve speaking skills of the 12th grade students at Tan Ky High school? 2) What are the students? ??... applied not only one format of debate but combined four popular formats including: The Fishbowl Debate; Advocate Decision-Making Debate; The Four Corners; Debate Ball-Toss Debate which were described