Developing speaking skill through using language games for the 10th form students at sam son high school

Vinh University Foreign language department ===    === nguyễn thị bình DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH USING TH LANGUAGE GAMES FOR THE 10 FORM STUDeNTS AT SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL (phát triển kỹ nói qua việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ cho học sinh lớp 10 trờng thpt sầm sơn) G RADUATION THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Vinh - 2011 Vinh University Foreign language department ===    === DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH USING TH LANGUAGE GAMES FOR THE 10 FORM STUDeNTS AT SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL (phát triển kỹ nói qua việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ cho học sinh lớp 10 trờng thpt sầm sơn) G RADUATION THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Bui thi mai, m.a Student: nguyen thi binh Class: 48A - English Vinh - 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The study would not have been completed without the help and encouragements of many people who I thank so much First of all, I would like to express my sincere thank to my supervisor, Mrs Bui Thi Thanh Mai, whose useful instructions , materials, detail critical comments, and advices, encouragements as well Secondly, I would like to extend grateful and deep thanks to Mr Tinh, whose useful materials and faithful advice, follow me to the end of the study Furthermore, I also would like to express my special thanks to teachers and students at Sam Son high school who have helped me to carry out the survey for my study Finally, I am really thankful to my beloved family, my friends for their help and encouragement during the writing’s process Although the study has been done with my entire attempt, my limitations of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the study Therefore, it is my sole responsibility for any shortcomings that the may be consider having Vinh, May 2011 Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PART I: INTRODUCTION Reasons for choosing the study Aims and Objectives of the study Methods of the Study Scope of the Study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Teaching speaking skill in Communicative Language Teaching Approach 1.1.1 Speaking skill and its importance 1.1.1.1 The definition of speaking 1.1.1.2 The nature of speaking 1.1.1.3 The importance of speaking skill among four language skills 1.1.1.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 1.1.2 Problems with speaking activities 1.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching Approach 1.1.4 The implications of the Communicative Approach for language teaching and learning 1.1.5 Principles for teaching speaking in CLT 1.2 Overview of language games 1.2.1 The definition of language games 1.2.2 Types of language games 1.2.3 Roles of games in language teaching and learning 1.2.4 How to run a game? 1.2.4.1 When to use a game? 1.2.4.2 How to organize a game? ii 1.2.4.2.1 Timing 1.2.4.2.2 Level of the games 1.2.4.2.3 Classroom language 1.2.4.2.4 Classroom management CHAPTER II: A SURVEY OF USING GAMES FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL 2.1 The English learning situation at Sam Son high school 2.2 The survey 2.2.1 Overview the survey 2.2.1.1 Aims of the Survey 2.2.1.2 Informants and Settings 2.2.2 The data collection instrument 2.2.3 Description of the survey questionnaires 2.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire The survey questionnaire aimed to collect information about students’ attitudes towards English learning and language games 2.2.3.1.1 Presentation of the data 2.2.3.1.2 Data analysis 2.2.3.2 Extra-survey questionnaire 2.2.3.2.1 Presentation of the data 2.2.3.2.2 Data analysis Figure 10: Students’ participation in language games Question deals with students’ participation when playing games The number of the participants who are ready to join the games actively builds up 47.4%; meanwhile 49.6% rate their participation as inactive They claim that they join the games only when being asked by their teacher or only when being interested, which accounts for 25.1% and 24.5% respectively Only 2.96% voice that they refuse to play such games given by teacher iii The results collected from question shows that a quite high number of students (62.2%) feel comfortable and relaxed meanwhile a significant number, accounting for 19.3% feel OK Especially, 18.5% students confirm that they feel uncomfortable Although the number of these students is not small, it should also be taken into consideration Because if teacher expect to get the highest teaching and learning results when using language games in speaking classes, the reasons for this fact must be found Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of language games used in speaking classes ( Question 4.5.6.7) Language games have been exploited and implemented in speaking lessons for the past two months Therefore, it enables the students to evaluate its effectiveness in motivating students to speak 26 Figure 11: Students’ participation in speaking lessons The pie chart shows that over half of the students (53.3%) affirm that they really feel more motivated to speak during and after playing games 34.1% of the informants admit that if the games are of their interests, they will actively take part in speaking lessons Unexpectedly, there exist 12.6% of students who show their low motivation and reluctance to speak despite teachers’ efforts to employ language games When asking students of self-evaluate the effectiveness of using language games in speaking classes, most of the informants found these games are effective, talking up 81.5% whereas 19.5% not consider these games an effective teaching technique Question dealing with the benefits of language games to speaking classes is specially designed for those who admit the effectiveness of using language games in speaking classes Therefore, only 110 students get involved in this question 27 Figure 12: Benefits of using language games in speaking classes iv As mentioned above, the target population in this question is 110 students Firstly, it can be seen obviously that all students agree that the using of language games is effective However, they have different ideas about the benefits of language games 30.1% students raise their voice that these language games make speaking lessons more enjoyable and more fun and 24.5% students agree that language games make speaking lessons less challenging and less difficult, 21.8% students voice that language games create more chances for students to speak There remain a large number of students who find speaking topics and speaking activities rather boring and challenging (23.6%) This positive result reassures that language games a great helping raising students’ motivation is learning speaking skill Like question 6, question aiming at investigating the reasons for the ineffectiveness of using language games is especially or those who think that language games have nothing to with increasing students’ motivation Question is an open-ended question and there are only 25 students answering this question Based on the feedback from students, there are some main reasons for this First of all, the majority reveals that some of the games that teachers give are unclear and somewhat confusing Besides, some of the respondents consider the high required level of the target language an obstacle preventing them from envying the games A small number partly contribute to reduce the effectiveness of using language games in teaching speaking skill Students’ expectation for the use of language games in speaking classes (Question 8) 28 Figure 13: Students’ expectation for the use of language games in speaking classes The data illustrated in figure 13 shows that the majority of the respondents (42.7%) think that in order to make best use of language games, teacher should choose and exploit games that suit students’ language level, v which means that if language means that if language games exploited should not be either too easy or difficult It is of great importance because if the games are too easy, they will lose their interest and if the games are too difficult, they will be discouraged to speak Clear and easy-to-understand instructions are preferred by 29% of the students That there exists this high number of students is understandable because once instructions are confusing, students will lose their way to the success of a speaking lessons In addition, teachers should demonstrate the games briefly and clearly so that students find it easier to join games successfully Last but not least, it is necessity for teachers to collect a variety of language games Students will be easily fed up with playing the same games again and again The more diversified the language games are, the more boredom we can avoid when usually employing these games 29 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1 Findings 3.1.1 Positive factors 3.1.2 Challenges In the real context of exploiting language games in motivating students to speak, there exist some inevitable challenges The following are some problems facing teachers in teaching which are concluded from the survey First of all, based on the data analysis of survey questionnaires, it is revealed that there are a number of students who join the games only when being asked by teacher or when feelings interested Although the number of these students is small, it should also be taken into consideration to find out the reasons to make the best use of language games In addition, according to what has been gained from the data, the process of using language games may leave many challenges from teacher Their class instructions are sometimes unclear, which makes students vi ... situation of using language games for the 10th form students at Sam Son high school • Giving some suggested games that teacher use to develop their students? ?? speaking skill The objects of the. .. and synthetic methods Quantitative and qualitative methods Scope of the Study The study focuses on the real situation and suggests language games for the 10th form students at Sam Son high school. .. SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL 2.1 The English learning situation at Sam Son high school There are totally 370 students at Sam Son high school in eight classes from 10A2 to 10A8 The majority of high school