SKKN the application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders at trieu son no2 upper secondary school

THANH HOA SERVICE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING TRIEU SON No2 UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL EXPERIENTIAL INITIATIVES “THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH GRADERS AT TRIEU SON No2 UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL Researcher: Lê Đình Thắng Post: Vice headmaster Field: English THANH HÓA NĂM 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study .1 Scope of the study Research methods 4.1 Description of the subjects .2 4.2 Data collection instruments 4.2.1 Questionnaire .2 4.2.2 Classroom observation 4.2.3 Procedures 4.2.4 Methods of data analysis II CONTENTS .4 Theoretical basis of the initiatives 1.1 Teaching speaking 1.1.1 The speaking needs and goals of language students 1.1.2 Approaches to teaching speaking 1.2 Communicative activities 1.2.1 What are communicative activities? 1.2.2 Purposes of communicative activities .8 1.2.3 Types of oral communicative activities .8 1.2.3.1 Communication games .9 1.2.3.2 Songs 1.2.3.3 Discussion 10 1.2.3.4 Problem solving 10 1.2.3.5 Simulation and role-play 10 The real situation of teaching speaking skills at Trieu Son No2 uppersecondary school 11 2.1 An overview of Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school 11 2.2 The teachers of English in Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school.11 2.3 The students in Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school 12 2.4 The syllabus of teaching and learning English .12 2.5 The teaching and learning English speaking skills 12 The used measures to solve the problems .13 3.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 13 3.1.1 Using song .13 3.1.2 Communicative games 13 3.1.3 Role play 14 3.1.4 Class discussion .14 3.1.5 Problem-solving activity 15 4.1 Results of teachers’ survey questionnaire .15 4.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards communicative activities .15 4.2 Results of students’ survey questionnaire .17 4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards communicative activities .17 III CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 19 Conclusions 19 Recommendations 20 REFERENCES……………………………………………………… APPENDICES I INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study The introduction of the new textbook “English 10” into teaching at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school in 2006 has marked real renovation in language teaching and learning from the traditional approach-grammar translation method, which only concentrates on the ability of using grammar rules precisely, to communicative approach, which focuses on communication ability Nonetheless, the teachers of English at Trieu Son No2 uppersecondary school find it difficult to teach speaking successfully because of the class size, the students’ language level, and additionally, students are not acquainted with CLT Moreover, the majority of the teachers were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method, which impedes them from teaching speaking successfully even the new textbook follows the communicative approach As a teacher of English at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school, I often receive similar questions from many students For example, “I can understand grammar and sentence structures well, but I feel embarrassed to talk in English” or “What should I to speak English well?” In my reality of teaching, there are a lot of students who have perfect knowledge of grammar that works wonderfully for reading and writing but cannot express themselves to the teachers On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complaints from the colleagues: “Students seem so quiet and lazy during speaking lessons It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities” Therefore, the idea of doing something useful for my colleagues and students has urged me to conduct the research Another reason why the study was carried out lies in my love for teaching speaking By doing the study, I can know more about the challenges in teaching and learning speaking skills so that I can find relevant techniques along with activities to improve my teaching speaking at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on “The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school” with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for Grade 10th at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school Aims of the study The aims of the study are to address the following issues: • The difficulties that teachers and students face in the process of teaching and learning speaking skills; • The application of some useful communicative activities to improve English speaking ability for 10th graders Scope of the study This study is concerned with the application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills to the students in grade 10 th at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school The researcher is not planning on studying a larger population of the whole students at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school, just on the students in grade 10th in order to find out what communicative activities are applied and the obstacles experienced by these students and teachers of English then offer some recommendations with the hope that teaching and learning speaking skills will be improved Research methods 4.1 Description of the subjects The participants in this study are English teachers of Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school and eighty tenth-graders of the school Participants in the questionnaire survey for teachers are English teachers, ranged from 26 to 44 years in age and have a long time of teaching experience, which varied from to 23 years The participants in the questionnaire survey for students are eighty of two English classes 10A1, 10A2 in Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school They are all at the age of fifteen They have learned English for four years at different secondary schools in Trieu Son Most of them are good at English, because they had to take a difficult examination to be admitted into the school In that examination, there is only English written test The problem here is that all of them are good at reading and writing English but not all of them are good at listening and speaking since there is not any oral test for them 4.2 Data collection instruments 4.2.1 Questionnaire A questionnaire is considered the most appropriate research instrument for gathering information concerning the attitudes of the respondents Three reasons for this have been found out First, a questionnaire is confidential and the respondents can remain anonymous Second, a questionnaire is easy to administer enabling the researcher to survey a large number of respondents Third, the respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them Two sets of questionnaires were employed in this study: one for teachers including questions and one for students which consists of questions The questions are both close-ended and open-ended 4.2.2 Classroom observation The researcher’s classroom observation was taken during her teaching to help the researcher survey the real situation for triangulation purposes so that reliability and validity of the data collected for this study could be achieved 4.2.3 Procedures At the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2020-2021, two sets of questionnaires were sent to those teachers and students at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school who agreed to take part in the research After one week, these questionnaires were collected Information from these questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of statistic information (tables) for analysis to make implications and recommendations on the application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders Besides, the method of observation was carried out during the second semester Ten speaking lessons were observed All implemented communicative activities were noted down to see how effective they were 4.2.4 Methods of data analysis In the data analysis stage, the researcher categorized the collected data from the two questionnaires into two groups, one for the teachers and the other for the students Two themes were established from the two set of questions: - Questions for teachers * Teachers’ attitudes towards communicative activities * Teachers’ difficulties in using communicative activities to teach speaking skill - Questions for students * Learners’ attitude towards communicative activities * Learners’ difficulties in taking part in communicative activities The data was selected statistically in the form of percentages II CONTENTS Theoretical basis of the initiatives 1.1 Teaching speaking 1.1.1 The speaking needs and goals of language students One of the aims of most of the language programs used by teachers today is to develop spoken language skills, and most programs aim to integrate both spoken and written language However, the emphasis given to speaking in a language program varies according to the needs and goals of the students and the focus of the course According to Burns (1997), decisions about teaching speaking will inevitably depend on the learners’ goal and their needs in developing speaking skills The most important starting point when deciding how to teach speaking is to gather background data about students such as age, language background and previous language learning, their goals, needs and the contexts in which they will need to use English It also involves assessing their current level of spoken language competency or proficiency Sheils (1993) has suggested that the development of communicative ability has to be related to the needs of learners They have both immediate and potential communicative needs They need to know how to express their own meanings in the here-and-now of the classroom as they share knowledge, experiences, interests, opinions and feelings Learners also need to be prepared to use the language for real communication outside the classroom Burns (1997) has also shown that in deciding what spoken language to include in a program, it is valuable to investigate the students’ purposes and goals for improving their speaking skills This can be done through interviews, individual and class discussions and through class surveys Harmer (1996) has shown that students may have “short-term goals” and “long-term goals” in learning a language Long-term goals might have something to with a wish to get a better job at some future date, or a desire to be able to communicate with members of a target language community Short-term goals might include such things as wanting to pass an end-ofsemester test or wanting to finish a unit in a book Some students may simply consider that learning a language involves learning to speak and may believe that it is up to the teacher to decide what they should learn In considering students’ speaking needs, we should also consider the role of spoken language in the classroom Spoken language is central to the management of the classroom and we should be aware of the levels and types of language we, as teachers, use to manage the classroom If we ask students participate in classroom activities, we need to make sure that we use spoken instructions which they can understand We also need to familiarize students with types of texts which we use to manage the classroom and the texts which develop classroom social interactions When making realistic judgments about how quickly students will develop spoken language, it is important to consider the opportunities they have to practice spoken language outside the classroom, and their willingness to take advantage of these opportunities Knowing how often students are likely to engage in spoken interactions outside the classroom will influence decisions about what spoken language texts to introduce into the program It will also influence the types of out-of-class tasks set to encourage the students to interact outside the classroom 1.1.2 Approaches to teaching speaking In this section we will consider some theoretical approaches which have informed language teaching in· the twentieth century and which have had various implications for the teaching of speaking The first approach we would like to mention here is the grammartranslation approach The grammar-translation approach emerged in response to a growing interest in the learning of foreign, generally European, languages in the nineteenth century The focus of this approach in language learning is on the knowledge of grammar and on applying this knowledge in the process of translating from one language to another One of the central features of the approach was the presentation of the new language through individual sentences which exemplified grammatical points A typical lesson would include the presentation of a new grammatical point, a list of new vocabulary items to be learned and practice sentences for students to translate The grammar-translation approach placed considerable emphasis on accuracy and stressed the production of complete sentences As the approach was based on written grammatical sources, the teaching of speaking was, in effect, neglected and teaching itself took place through the medium of the learner’s first language This approach also encouraged a word-by-word construction of sentences, which ignored meaning and often produced unnatural sound in sentences One of the main goals of this approach was to develop skills that would allow learner to read the works of great literature or to experience the intellectual discipline of studying and analyzing grammatical structure Richards and Rodgers (1986) has shown that in the first half of the twentieth century, the theories of American structural linguists such as Bloomfield (1993) and Fries (1945) gradually replaced the more traditional approaches of classical humanism and the structural approach became influential in language teaching And it was considered one of the most common approaches to teaching speaking and listening This approach was based on the view that language is acquired by stimuli and imitation It was an approach which gave a much greater emphasis to speaking than the previous grammar-translation approach This approach to teaching focuses on audiolingual method of imitation, repetition and response Burns (1997) has also shown that, on the one hand, this approach to teaching speaking and listening forms habits of speaking with good intonation and correct grammar Learners were trained in correct speech-patterns and expected to practice them There was a strong emphasis on repetition and on building up of linguistic items through drills and exercises which focused on grammatical structures and patterns On the other hand, this approach places little interest in the context for speaking Learners’ activities involved intense practice in aural-oral skills and focused on activities such as drills and substitution exercises taken from a graded syllabus There was little interest in the contexts for speaking, which were used merely as a situational vehicle for the more important practice of grammatical structure Learners may find it difficult to perform in a context different from what they have been taught However, in the EFL context where students lack opportunity to be exposed to the natural speaking environment for self correction, imitation of sounds, intonation and vocabulary plays a great importance in the early developmental stage of language acquisition Another approach to teaching speaking and listening is communicative approach This approach based on the view that language must be seen in a social context rather than as grammatical structures According to Burns et al (1997), this approach emphasizes the idea about linguistic competence by taking up the issue of the speakers’ performance or language use Communicative competence includes not only linguistic knowledge, but also knowledge of the cultural and communicative systems available to the speakers, and their relationship with the setting, participant, purpose, channel of communication and topic Communicative approach of teaching focuses on teaching how to use language for communicative purposes The main features of the communicative approach are the followings: ♣ First, language is viewed within social context rather than as a system of grammatical patterns; ♣ Second, the teaching content is developed on the basis of student needs; a concern with all the four macro skills of language, rather than primarily with reading and writing ♣ Third, there is tolerance of learner errors as an inevitable aspect of language acquisition ♣ Finally, this approach to teaching encourages students to learn independently and emphasizes the role of the teacher as a facilitator of the learning process Since the 1970s, communicative approach has had a major influence on teaching and learning in many parts of the world One of the major benefits of communicative language teaching (CLT) is that it has brought about a more comprehensive view of teaching and learning Methodologies based on communicative approach to teaching speaking tend to focus on spoken language use rather than the form of the language This has meant that in the classroom the teacher has been encouraged to focus on activities which will get students speaking and attention has been paid to providing them with the means to interact As a result, there was often little guidance given to teachers on how to integrate a focus on the form of spoken language 1.2 Communicative activities 1.2.1 What are communicative activities? According to Harmer (1991), whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students should have a desire to communicate If they not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective The students should have some kind of communicative purpose, in other words they should be using language in some way to achieve an objective Then their attention should be centered on the content of what is being said or written and not the language form that is being used So, communicative activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative purpose In communicative activities, the students will have to deal with a variety of language (either receptively or productively) rather than just one grammatical construction While the students are engaged in the communicative activity the teacher should not intervene, which means he/she should not correct mistakes This would undermine the communicative purpose of the activity The teacher may of course be involved in the activity as a participant, and will also be watching and listening very carefully in order to be able to conduct feedback Thus for non-communicative activities there will be no desire to communicate on the part of the students and they will have no communicative purpose In other words, where the students are involved in a drill or in repetition, they will be motivated not by a desire to reach a communicative objective, but by the need to reach the objective of accuracy Harmer (1991) has summarized those points in a figure called “The communicative continuum”: NON-COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES * no communicative desire * no communicative purpose * form not content * one language item * teacher intervention * materials control COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES * a desire to communicate * a communicative purpose * content not form * variety of language * no teacher intervention * no materials control Of course not all classroom activities are either “communicative” or “non-communicative” There are techniques that fall somewhere between the two extremes Harmer has also divided work on the productive skills into three major stages: introducing new language, practice and communicative activities The introduction of new language is frequently an activity that falls at the “noncommunicative” end of the continuum Often here the teacher will work with controlled techniques, asking students to repeat and perform in drills At the same time the teacher will insist on accuracy, correcting when the students make mistake Practice activities are those which fall somewhere between the two extremes the continuum While students perform them they may have a communicative purpose, and while they may be working in pairs, there may level of three years and maximum over twenty years Most of them have University Bachelor’s Degree, one Master Degree, and the others have taken the in-service training courses Without doubt, all the teachers at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching They are willing to help their students overcome their difficulties in learning English generally and in speaking particularly 2.3 The students in Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school The majority of students in the study at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school are aged from 15 to 18 Most of them come from rural areas and they have learnt English since lower secondary schools Among them, there are a large number of students who are really interested in learning English and want to develop their ability in using English In contrast, the other part of students is low in motivation They tend to regard English as less important than other subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations 2.4 The syllabus of teaching and learning English At Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school, English is one of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum The syllabus and the textbooks for English including “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, “Tiếng Anh 12” are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training The English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a total of 105 periods, periods per week Each period is 45 minutes long The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade 10th at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school is “Tieng Anh 10” which was designed following communicative approach The textbook consists of 16 units with parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice Also, there exists a consolidate unit after every units The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have achieved in the previous units 2.5 The teaching and learning English speaking skills It has been accepted that students’ communicative ability is the proper aim for language teaching This makes teaching and learning speaking skills seem to be an important part in any English course Like many other high schools in Vietnam, teaching and learning speaking skills at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school are affected by some constraints such as large class sizes, students’ unfamiliarity with CLT, students’ low English proficiency, students’ low participation in class time Normally, in a class at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school, a number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and active during the class while a majority of those with low English proficiency are very passive Besides, lack of training in teaching methods, especially CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to access to new approach, which makes the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging 12 The used measures to solve the problems Despite the difficulties mentioned above, the exploitation of various communicative activities would make the speaking lessons more interesting Some kinds of communicative activities, which will be presented according to some criteria established in the teaching implications, have proved their effectiveness 3.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 3.1.1 Using song Songs can be applied at the beginning of the lesson as a warm up activity It not only takes effect when teachers want students to practice listening but also enhances students’ oral skills by asking them to retell the content of the song after listening It can be carried out in speaking and listening lesson Procedures: Teacher prepares handouts on which there is a song lyric with some gaps Students listen to the song and fill in the missing words After all the missing words are filled and checked by the teacher, students will be asked to work in groups of or and retell the content of the song Then the teacher randomly chooses students from different groups to present their opinion; the others can support their friends Example Unit 12: MUSIC Material: the song “Thank you for the music” by ABBA Time: 15 – 20 minutes Or Unit 13: FILMS AND CINEMA Material: the song “My heart will go on” Time: 15 – 20 minutes 3.1.2 Communicative games Communicative games not only provide learners with opportunities to talk but also encourage their participation and can highly motivate them in talking Furthermore, by playing these games, students will use their limited English more naturally because their concentration will be on solving the problems posed by the games and not on the language they use to solve the problems There are many games for practicing speaking; however, the researcher only focuses on the game: "Spot the difference" which is considered to be the most suitable and effective one for 10th graders to enhance their speaking skills Spot the difference Time: 12 - 15 minutes Procedure: The teacher prepares pairs of pictures The pictures in a pair should be similar but should have some differences The number of differences depends on the level of the students They work in pairs Teacher gives each pupil a picture Student A and B ask each other questions until they 13 find the differences They must not see each other’s pictures Finally they show each other their picture and compare them Questions that students might ask are: - Is it a girl? - Is she wearing glasses? - Has she got long hair? - Is she wearing a T-shirt? This kind of game can be applied at the beginning of any lesson in the course book as a warm up activity for the students to be motivated and relaxed Thanks to a relaxed feeling, they can produce the best English 3.1.3 Role play Free role play: No prescribed structures and very few suggestions If it is necessary, the vocabulary to be used is presented The teacher simply gives students and the characters; alternatively, students come up with their own situations After an appropriate time, they deliver their presentation Semi-controlled role play: Structures or vocabulary may be suggested by the teacher, but much of the content is determined by the participants A list of utterances or only a list of words which could be used in the situation are given to students who are allowed time to prepare the role play before presenting it to the class Controlled role play: This involves the use of grammatical structures and vocabulary which are controlled by a script The script offers the participants to change the tense of the verb Example Unit 7: THE MASS MEDIA Time: 20-25 minutes Procedures: Teacher follows the steps: (1) Divide the class into two sides: A will be TV viewers, B will be Reporters (2) Ask side B to make an interview to find out what programs the viewers like best (4) Tell side A choose as many programs as possible with explanations (5) Ask some of the Ss about their favorite programs T tries to find out who is the best interviewer and who is the best interviewee 3.1.4 Class discussion - Free discussion: A free discussion is an open exchange of ideas on a topic suggested by the students or based on a reading passage - Semi controlled discussion: The teacher provides the topic and an outline or list of points to be discussed, while the students produce their own language - Controlled discussion: The teacher provides the topic, some of the language, and an outline or list of points to be discussed Example 14 Unit 6: AN EXCURSION Time: 15 - 20 minutes Procedure: Teacher follows the steps: (1) Raise the topic “Going to Huong Pagoda or Water Park this weekend?” (2) Have students choose their own option (3) Form the two big groups based on the students’ choice (4) Let students in two groups debate by asking questions and supporting the ideas (5) Comment on students’ performance and make necessary corrections 3.1.5 Problem-solving activity A problem may be solved by students working in groups or by each student working alone In the latter case, after each student has his solution, the students may be divided into several small groups of or The task of each group is to arrive at a consensus regarding the solution to the problem, selecting a spokesperson, and formulating a rationale for the group’s decision A further possible step is to have all of the groups arrive at a consensus Here is an example for a problem-solving activity: Unit 5: TECHNOLOGY AND YOU Time: 15 minutes Procedure: Teacher asks their students to work in groups of or then introduce the topic: “Imagine that you have a close friend who plays games online a lot Decide what to to help him or her get rid of it” The effectiveness of experiential initiatives on educational activities, on themselves, their colleagues and the school 4.1 Results of teachers’ survey questionnaire The findings from the teacher questionnaire are categorized into subsections as Teachers’ attitudes towards communicative activities and Teachers’ difficulties in using communicative activities All will be summarized in Tables 1, 2, 4.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards communicative activities Table 1 Have you ever been trained in CLT? Options Result (%) a Yes, in English teaching -training courses 20% b Yes, in English teaching workshops 40% c Others 20% d No, I have never been trained in CLT 20% As indicated in Table 1, only 60 % of the teachers said that they were trained in CLT in training courses and in English teaching work shops 20% admitted that they had never received formal CLT training and the same number improved the knowledge of CLT by self-studying From these figures, it could be concluded that opportunities for the teachers to be trained in CLT were insufficient This could be one of the factors which influenced their 15 understanding of CLT and its application to teaching speaking skills Table 2 When you usually use communicative activities? Options Result (%) a at the beginning of the lesson 25% b during the lesson 65% c at the end of the lesson 15% d out of the class time 0% The aim of question is to show the teachers’ time of using communicative activities Results are displayed in Table Most of the teachers (65%) shared the idea of using the activities while teaching language items, during the lesson Only 25% of them organized the class with communicative activities at the beginning of the lesson as a means for warming up the students and 10% of teachers applied them at the end of the lesson This result bears an encouraging signal in which all the respondents were familiar with communicative activities and they used to employ this sort of activity in their lessons Table 3 What kinds of communicative activities you usually use in your English teaching process? Options Result (%) a Discussion 75% b Songs 10% c Problem solving 15% d Role play 81% e Communicative games 80% f Others: 0% ……………………………………………… Table clearly indicates that the teachers make the best use of different types of speaking activities in their English lessons Those activities such as discussion, using songs, role play, communicative games, etc prove to be useful to help develop communicative competence for their students Among these activities, discussion, role play and communicative games rank the first in the list which accounts for approximately 80% of the teachers who preferred to use them in English teaching process Meanwhile, a tiny proportion (10%) reported their exploitation of using songs as communicative activity in their lesson because they lack material which was suitable for the topic of the lesson in the course book In short, this result is a good sign that the teachers are trying their best to adopt new CLT methods and techniques in teaching speaking to their students to enhance their oral skills 16 4.2 Results of students’ survey questionnaire 4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards communicative activities In the survey, when answering the first question: “How often you speak English in class?”, 68 out of 80 said “Sometimes” Only 12% of the students answer that they usually speak English in class More surprisingly, the writer found that the number of students who rarely speak English in class is not small (20%) This also shows a big question for the teachers of English and the reasons why they not participate much in the activities Question is to find out the reasons for speaking of students in classroom Table is shown to demonstrate the result Table You speak English when Options Result (%) a You talk with your friends 30% b Your teacher asks you 50% c You are interested in the topic and activities 20% Table shows that about 30 out of 80 students raised their voice when talking with friends in class and half of the students said that they only spoke when they were asked to so by their teachers At the same time, only 20 students spoke English when they were interested in the topic and speaking activities The students’ attitude toward communicative activities is shown through answers to questions Table What kinds of communicative activities you like to participate in your class? (more than one option is possible) Options Result (%) a Discussion 36% b Songs 64% c Problem solving 2% d Role play 27% e Communicative games 60% f Others: 0% …………………………………………………… Question helps teachers know more about the kinds of communicative activities that students were fond of participating in The collected data shows that communicative games and using songs are those that students liked to take part in most They highly recommend using songs in speaking activities to cheer up the stressful atmosphere; also songs can draw their attention to the main speaking activities Most of the student participated believed that discussion is the feasible activity to take part in They also approved the use of role play but disapproved the application of problem solving because 17 problem solving was thought to be merely suitable for gifted students of English in class not for all students Therefore, ordinary students were not competent enough to take part in such a challenging activity The above-mentioned ideas are some general findings on the kinds of communicative activities that most students prefer Together with students’ interest in specific kinds of communicative activities, these will be taken into consideration in order to propose suitable suggestions for the use of communicative activities for 10th graders 18 III CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions It has been seen that the responsibility to develop students’ speaking skills in teaching and learning a foreign language lies mainly with teachers However, success in speaking should be the result of both teachers and students Communicative ability, especially oral communicative ability is very complex But if it is taught and practiced effectively, it can help students develop a sense of progress necessary to keep their motivation levels high When teaching and learning speaking skills, both teachers and students first of all have to understand clearly the nature of spoken language and its characteristics, this understanding is very important for language teachers to have an appropriate approach to teaching reproductive skills The EFL teachers should also take into account some important factors in order to assist EFL students’ speaking skills To make a speaking lesson successful, teachers should understand well the speaking needs and goals of students, as decisions about teaching speaking will inevitably depend on the learners’ goals and their needs in developing speaking skills; they should be aware of some main approaches to teaching speaking, and especially should observe the principles for teaching speaking In the era of communicative language teaching, every teacher should keep in mind the word “interaction” as “the key to teaching language for communication” (Rivers, 1987: 17) or “the heart of communication, it is what communication is all about” (Brown, 1990: 159) According to Brown, theories of communicative competence emphasize the importance of interaction as human being use language in various contexts to “negotiate” meaning, or simply stated, to get one idea out of your head and into the head of another person and vice versa He has also indicated that from the very beginning of language study, classroom should be interactive, and this is well done with the help of communicative activities The most important thing to be remembered is that communicative activities always give students both the desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of language Such activities are vital in a language classroom since here the students can “do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree of language autonomy” (Harmer, 1991: 51) This study has shown the role of communicative activities in developing students’ speaking skill and the ways that teachers can help students to be more and more able to speak well in their speaking lessons As language teachers, we should help our students to see that “language learning is not a skill where we can simply bone up on rules and words in isolation”, and that “language is for communicating with people (whether through oral or written modes) and the more they engage in such face to face communication, the more their overall communicative competence will improve” (Brown, 1990: 177) Therefore, to understand well the teachers’ role in language 19 teaching in general and in teaching speaking in particular is very essential and crucial Recommendations From the researcher’s own experience and the precious advice of the experienced teachers of English at Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school, some recommandations are offered on the using of communicative activities * While the students are communicating as best as they can, the teacher moves around the room, listening, and determines what the students know and not know In this way, teaching is designed to meet actual needs of the students Furthermore, a close attention to students may help teachers restrict the use of mother tongue in doing the activities * The teacher should not correct grammar during a communicative activity As a matter of fact, communication deals with the conveying of information; hence, interrupting students to correct or call attention to errors will disturb the flow and inhibit the speaker In addition, assessment should focus on whether information has been successfully conveyed or not * It is not suggested that teacher’s correction for accuracy is eliminated It may well happen when a student succeeds in getting a message across However, teacher’s correction should be given at some other stages and not during the communicative activity * Last but not least, communicative activities should be done in pairs or groups, which help to increase cooperativeness among students In order to avoid the situation in which the good-at-speaking students tended to dominate the speaking activities in and the weak students often depended too much on those who learned better their groups work, it is advisable for teachers to randomly call representatives to come in front or even create more chances for these passive learners to express their ideas in English XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày 18 tháng năm 2021 CAM KẾT KHƠNG COPY Lê Đình Thắng 20 REFERENCES Brown, H.D (1990) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to language Pedagogy Prentice Hall Regents San Francisco State University Burns, A (1997) Focus on Speaking Sydney, Macquarie University Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford University Press Harmer, J (1983) The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong, Nguyen Quoc Tuan (2006) Tieng Anh 10 Hanoi: Educational Publishing House Ladousse, P (1987) Role play Resource Book for Teachers Oxford University Press Littlewood, W (1990) Communicative language Teaching An Introduction Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1992) Teaching Oral Communication A Methodological Framework Blackwell Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge University Press Quan, Nguyen Hai (2004) Learning to Use Songs to Teach Grammar Teacher’s Edition, 14, 57 Richard, J.C & Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP Rivers, W.M (1983) Communicating Naturally in Second Language Teaching, Cambridge: CUP Sheils, J (1993) Communication in the Modern Language Classroom Council of Europe Press APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders in Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school” Your assistance in filling the following items is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you Please write down some information about yourself Your age: ………………………………… Sex: ……………………………………… Years of learning English: ………………… Please tick (√) where appropriate or write in brief where necessary (You can choose more than one answer to some questions) How often you speak English in class? a Very often b Sometimes c Rarely You speak English when a You talk with your friends b Your teacher asks you c You are interested in the topic and activities What kinds of communicative activities you like to participate in your class? (more than one option is possible) a Discussion b Songs c Problem solving d Role play e Communicative games f Others: ………………………………………………………………………… How you like the activities? a Very much b Not much c Not at all What forms of the activity you like to take part in? a The whole class work b Groups work c Pairs work d Individual work What is the effectiveness of practicing the activities for you? a You can speak more fluently b You feel more confident c You have chance to practice English d You are more interested in learning English e Your English is much improved f Others: What reasons discourage you from speaking English in class? a Being fearful of losing face b Being worried about making mistakes c Being not accustomed to speaking English d Having low English proficiency What does your teacher often to stimulate you to speak? a Encourages you by grades b Gives you praise and encouragement c Applies several extra activities outside the textbook (e.g songs, communicative, games, role play ) d Tries to finish what is required in school curriculum Thank you very much for your cooperation!!! APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders in Trieu Son No2 upper-secondary school” Your assistance in filling the following items is greatly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you Please write down some information about yourself Your age: ………………………………… Sex: ……………………………………… Years of teaching English: ………………… Please tick (√) where appropriate or write in brief where necessary (You can choose more than one answer to some questions) Have you ever been trained in Communicative Language Teaching? (Please choose one answer) e Yes, in English teaching -training courses f Yes, in English teaching workshops g Others h No, I have never been trained in CL T When you usually use communicative activities? e at the beginning of the lesson f during the lesson g at the end of the lesson h out of the class time What kinds of communicative activities you usually use in your English teaching process? a Discussion b Songs c Problem solving d Role play e Communicative games f Others: …………………………………………………………………… What difficulties you meet when carrying out the communicative activities? In terms of students’ side a learners often keep quiet and only speak when they are asked b learners are too shy to speak in front of the class c learners are not interested in the topic In terms of your own side a it’s difficult to organize b it takes too much time to make a lesson plan In terms of objective factors a lack of materials b size of class c time allocation d atmosphere in class Other difficulties that you face: (please be specific) ………………………………………………………… In order to motivate your students to speak English what you often do? a.Encouraging them by grades b.Giving them praise and encouragement c.Applying several extra activities outside the textbook d Trying to finish what is required in school curriculum Thank you very much for your cooperation!!! APPENDIX 3: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST Date: Teacher: Unit: Class: No of students: Materials: Activity: * Observation Students’ level of participation in speaking activities Very low Very high Students’ interaction with the teacher and other partners Very bad Very good Students’ attitudes towards speaking activities Not interested Very interested Teacher’s teaching techniques & speaking activities Not appropriate Very appropriate Classroom learning atmosphere Not active Very active * Comment: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………… ... increases motivation” The real situation of teaching speaking skills at Trieu Son No2 uppersecondary school 2.1 An overview of Trieu Son No2 upper- secondary school Trieu Son No2 upper- secondary school. .. teaching speaking at Trieu Son No2 upper- secondary school The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on ? ?The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10 th graders. .. graders at Trieu Son No2 upper- secondary school? ?? with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills for Grade 10th at Trieu Son No2 upper- secondary school