Using language games to develop 5th graders’ speaking skill

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY ĐỒNG THỊ VÂN USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO DEVELOP 5th GRADERS’ SPEAKING SKILL MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION VINH - 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY ĐỒNG THỊ VÂN USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO DEVELOP 5th GRADERS’ SPEAKING SKILL Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Dr TRAN BA TIEN VINH - 2018 CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Using communication games to develop 5th graders’ speaking skill” is the result of my own work and the contents of this research have not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution Vinh, July 15th 2018 Signature Dong Thi Van I ABSTRACT This study is an Action Research project that focuses on implementing language games for teaching speaking skill to 5th graders in a primary school in Vinh city, Vietnam The teaching aim of this classroom project was to promote fluency in the speaking skill of students in order to have good communication in English, and the learning aim was to develop fluency in the English language by interacting orally in language games The study was conducted with cycles The information was collected through observations, video-recordings, photographs, and personal journals After each cycle the researcher made some modifications for improvement It was found that using language games was a good way to improve the students’ English fluency and accuracy, as well as motivation to learn the speaking skill II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have completed without the assistance and encouragement of many people whom I would like to acknowledge First and foremost, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr Tran Ba Tien for his constant support from the beginning to the end of the thesis implementation Without his kind assistance and critical comments I could not have completed the work Secondly, I wish to express my sincere thanks to the staff and lecturers who have taught me during the M.A program at Vinh university Thirdly, I am in debt to my colleagues and students at Trung Do Primary school for their help and cooperation during my research Last but not least, I wish to devote my special thanks to my dear family whose love and encouragement made a significant contribution to the accomplishment of the research Vinh, July 15th 2018 III TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGES Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of study 1.3 Scope of study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Organization of study Chapter 2: Theoretical background 2.1 A review of English language teaching methods 2.1.1 Grammar-Translation Method 4 2.1.2 The Series Method 2.1.3 The Direct Method 2.1.4.The Audiolingual Method (ALM) 2.1.5 Suggestopedia 2.1.6 The Silent Way 9 2.1.7 Total Physical Response (TPR) 10 2.1.8 The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 2.2 The communicative competence 17 2.3 Speaking skill 19 2.3.1 The definition of speaking 19 2.3.2 Teaching the speaking skill 20 2.3.2.1 20 Development of teaching speaking methods IV 2.3.2.2 Characteristics of successful speaking activity 24 2.3.2.3 Problems with speaking activities 25 2.4 27 Using games to teach speaking skill 2.4.1 The definition of games 27 2.4.2 Characteristics of games 28 2.4.3 Kinds of games 28 2.4.4 Reasons for using language games to teach the speaking 30 skill 32 Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1 Research setting 32 3.2 Participants 33 3.3.Materials 33 3.4 Data collection procedures 34 Chapter 4: Findings and discussion 37 4.1 Identifying the problems 37 4.2 Action Research implementation 39 4.2.1 Cycle 43 4.2.2 Cycle 49 4.3 Research Findings 54 4.4 Discussion 57 Chapter 5: Conclusion and implications 60 5.1 Conclusion 60 5.2 Implications 61 References 63 Appendices 65 V Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Teaching English to primary school students has drawn considerable attention in Vietnam in recent years Therefore, to promote the learning and practice of English in general and at primary school in particular, the Ministry of Education and Training has launched various innovation programs, most notable of which is the National Foreign Language Project 2020, which promotes the introduction of English education at grade This is the evidence of efforts in view of strengthening language learning from early age In order to develop an appropriate level of English in learners, the four skills, and their sub-skills, need to be taken into consideration This includes recognizing speaking, and interaction as well, as an essential part in the development of the learning process given the fact that speaking is involved in almost all human being’s actions in their daily life, considering, through this, the idea of learning as a way to acquire useful knowledge to be used in real life According to Bygate (1987) speaking is like a bridge that allows people to have and lose friends, through which individuals can progress socially Besides, speaking tends to be underestimated about the amount of practice that it requires, but it should be considered differently To deal with the shortcomings of textbooks in use, the Pilot English Curriculum for Primary Education was developed This curriculum began to be implemented in the school year 2010-2011 in Vietnam Trung Do primary school is one of the three schools in Vinh to be selected for the pilot program The objective of the new program is to develop students’ English language competence with four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, among which listening and speaking are the most important for primary students According to the pilot program, students will start learning English at grade with over 400 periods for grades to Upon finishing grade 5, they are expected to achieve level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) and their vocabulary stock is estimated at around 600 words Although the focus of the primary school English is on listening and speaking, most teachers tend to spend more time teaching reading and writing with little attention paid to oral and aural skill development for such reasons as large class size and limited resources As a result, most of primary school students are unable to speak English as expected They often feel shy and reluctant to speak in front of other people Another reason is that speaking activities in class are not motivating enough When forced to speak, they often give Yes/No or very short answers, or even worse they use Vietnamese instead After three years teaching the pilot program, I have made great efforts to diversify my teaching activities to develop pupils’ speaking skill, among which language games have shown multiple benefits Language games are not only fund and motivational, but also effective for speaking skill development Students no longer feel reluctant to communicate orally and they always show competition in learning The atmosphere in my English class is relaxing and exciting This is the reason for my decision to conduct research on “Using language games to develop 5th graders’ speaking skill” 1.2 Aims of the study The study aims to find effective ways to: - Investigate students’ attitude toward using games in speaking lessons - Find effective ways to make use of games to teach the speaking skill to 5th graders 1.3 Scope of the study Due to time and resources constraints, the study limits itself to language games to teach speaking skill The participants include groups of 5th grade students at Trung Do Primary school, Vinh city 1.4 Research questions The study attempt to answer the following research questions: What is the students’ attitude toward using games in speaking lessons? What are the impacts of using games to teaching speaking to 5th graders? 1.5 Significance of the study The study is conducted with a view to improve 5th graders’ skill It is hoped that the study would make a contribution to the practical aspect of English teaching, namely enhancing the quality of teaching and learning the oral skill for primary school students Furthermore, this study is hoped to make a theoretical contribution to language teaching methods in the context of Vietnam 1.6 Organization of study The study is structured with five chapters as follows: Chapter provides a general introduction which details the rationale, aims, the methods, research questions and the design of the study Chapter presents the theoretical background This chapter discusses the theoretical issues which lay the foundation for the research Chapter describes the Methodology of the study It details the research methods, research setting, participants and data collection and data analysis Chapter is concerned with Findings and discussion It presents the results of the action research and the discussion of the findings Chapter is “Conclusion part It makes a summary of the study and offers implications for teaching the speaking skill to the 5th graders using language games  The students did not show games made students curious curiosity and this did not and stimulated in joining achievements stimulate them in speaking speaking activities of students activity since there were not test scores any games implementation b The  Some of the students could  The games asked them to focus on the task It challenged them to compete with other groups It not focus on the lesson, they also made them thought were busy with their own creatively activities  The students were active and  Most of the students were not active and looked shy to answer the teacher’s enthusiastic in answering the teacher’s questions  The use of games challenged the questions students to find appropriate  The students could not answer teacher’s questions due to lack of vocabulary  The achievement of the vocabulary and asked the teacher when they found difficult words  The achievement of the students’ speaking proficiency increased students’ speaking test was The mean score of post-test is low The mean score of the 5.1 and the post-test is 6.2 pre-test was 3.9  The atmosphere of the class The was not active during  The class became more alive The students’ improvement teaching and learning motivation to join in of classroom process speaking class increased speaking atmosphere  The students had low  The students seemed motivation in joining active to discuss the task speaking class with their friends  Some of the students kept 55  The students became more enjoy talking with their friends in and active during the learning Vietnamese process  The students seemed bored in speaking class  They reported their answer willingly  There was uneven  The use of games participation during challenged them to speaking activities compete with other groups and it made the situation of teaching and learning enjoy  There was even participation during the speaking activities  The teacher was less Teacher improvement creative in teaching  The teacher has learned another speaking technique in teaching speaking  The teaching  Teaching speaking with games technique used did not activate the elicited the students’ students’ motivation participation in speaking As indicated in Table 4.3 that the use of games could motivate the students and they got a challenge to increase their vocabulary For example, the guessing games which asked the students to find the appropriate words, the specific information made them learn new vocabularies It means their accuracy improved when students had good range of vocabulary Games also enabled them to focus on the task It challenged them to compete with other groups This competition situation made them enthusiastic following 56 the teaching and learning process It also made them think creatively to find appropriate words and correct sentences Meanwhile, the improvement of speaking fluency appeared when students had effective communication The data showed that the students actively involved in the speaking activity, they could get the ideas to speak It was showed when they asked to make sentence based on the picture orally In addition to the improvements above, the atmosphere of the classroom also improved The games activity created a new condition In the classroom, the activity could increase the students’ motivation and enthusiasm During the class, they were encouraged to be active, creative, and confident Game tasks also created both cooperative and competitive climates It could be seen when students were in groups They help each other if they found difficulties For example, they allowed their friends to borrow their dictionary Every member of the group tried to the best for his/her group in order to have a good mark They also actively discussed the task with their peers On reflection of the two cycles, the researcher decided to complete the process, since cycle showed a better improvement on the students speaking proficiency and the atmosphere of the classroom 4.6 Discussion After analyzing the data such as field notes, audio recording of speaking, research observational report, lesson plans, the scores of the student’s pre-test and post-test, research diary, the researcher came up with some findings that implementation of games can help improve the students’ speaking proficiency and the classroom speaking atmosphere Firstly, games give students chances to explore their knowledge or vocabulary related to the topic Byrne (1997: 102) stated that games can be used to improve the learner’s command of particular items of language sound, vocabulary, spelling and grammatical function Games also involve a variety of structures The context of games encourages a wider use of language, but still with the overall aim of promoting accurate 57 command of the being used Related with guessing games used by the researcher, one of the key mechanisms used was getting them to try to find something out by guessing It developed their ability related with vocabulary mastery The students should find appropriate words to describe the things, in line with that goal Their ability could be improved With regards to the ways of playing games, namely group work Ur (1996, p.121) states that this increases the sheer amount of students talk going on in a limited period of time and also lowers the inhibition of students who are unwilling to speak in front of the full class The implementation of group work in games helps them to share their knowledge with his/her friends in limited time Secondly, the students show a good response towards games It can be seen from the teaching and learning process that their participation improved The improvement could be seen in their behavior All the students were ready in the class when the teacher entered, students actively answer teacher’s questions, and they were not ashamed to ask questions when found difficulties related to the topic It can be stated that games promote communicative competence, increase learning motivation, reduce learning anxiety, and encourage creative and spontaneous use the language Meanwhile, the students also were active consulting to dictionary when they had difficulties in finding words or by asking their friends Thirdly, the improvement was seen in using oral English When the teacher implemented games by showing pictures on the board, they looked enthusiastic to make sentences based on the pictures Most of them raised their hands to express their ideas orally and wrote them on the board, although some of them still had incorrect grammar and mispronounced some words On the other hand, their courage to express the ideas increased Fourthly, the improvement of the students’ speaking proficiency was shown in the result of the pre-test, post-test and post-test The scores improved from 3.9, 5.1 and 6.2, respectively The pre-test results showed that most of the students could only speak with broken language, little or no language produced, little communication, poor vocabulary, mistake in basic grammar, and sometimes difficult to understand The other problems were incorrect mispronunciation of the words and low vocabularies After the 58 lessons were conducted the result of post-test showed the development of the students’ ability in using grammar and oral English Most of them could answer the questions from the tester although some of them still had incorrect grammar and mispronunciation in words In line with post-test 1, post-test showed a good improvement of the students’ speaking proficiency The score of post–test increased considerably despite occasional grammar slips and hesitations After the next lessons, their ability in arranging the words using correct grammar increased They also made good improvement in pronouncing words and enlarging their vocabulary Fifthly, the improvement of the classrooms situation when games are implemented As can be seen in the previous part, games can create enjoyable classroom situation During the implementation of games, the students were more relaxed in learning It is said that games are welcome break from the usual routine of the language class, they are motivating and challenging, games provide language practice in the various skills It is evident that games can increase the students’ motivation in learning It makes them more challenge to compete with other team in order to win the games They also had more time practicing the language When games were implemented, the situation of teaching leaning process was more lively They looked interested and motivated to finish their tasks The competitive atmosphere also made them concentrate and think intensively during the learning process Before the research, the activities were based on the students’ worksheet, so they had a limited chance to practice the language expression they had learned Besides those findings, the researcher also investigated the students’ diary It was conducted to find the significant result of the result from the students’ side as the subject of the teaching leaning process The diary was written after the implementation of cycle The students showed great enthusiasm and interest in the games It is evident from the data that some students accumulated new knowledge about English and a new technique in learning speaking The situation of teaching leaning process were enjoyable through games Moreover, the scores of pre-test, post -test and post -test also significantly improved This findings show that games should be used to improve the students’ speaking proficiency 59 Chapter CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Conclusions This study was an attempt to improve speaking proficiency of the 5th grade students of Trung Do Primary School I implemented the classroom action research by using games I conducted pre-research before going to the real research in order to identify the students’ learning activity during the teaching process and teacher technique in teaching speaking The pre-research included interviewing the English teacher, observing classes, and conducting pre-test to the students During the implementation, I worked collaboratively with a colleague I played the role as the practitioner or the teacher, while the English teacher was an observer The aim of the observation was to gather information about the whole activities during the teaching learning process by implementing the technique of games The research was conducted in two cycles I conducted the post-test from each cycle in order to identify the improvement of the students’ speaking proficiency The findings of the research were in line with the research questions as the focus of the research, whether the implementation of games can improve students’ speaking proficiency especially in accuracy and fluency or not and knowing the atmosphere of the classroom during the implementation of games The research results are summarized in Table 4.3 of the previous chapter The result of the research shows that games can improve the students’ speaking proficiency and the atmosphere of the class becomes more alive Besides those findings, there is also the result finding on the teacher improvement that is she knows another technique in teaching speaking The improvement of the students speaking proficiency is shown by the improvements of their mean score The mean score of pre-test was 3.9 Most of the students received score and in accuracy and fluency because there was a little English produced In fact some of them did not produce language and had little communication After conducting the post-test 1, the students’ mean score showed an 60 improvement Most of them improved their accuracy and fluency which indicated that they spoke a considerable amount of English although they made some mistakes in grammar and they talked their idea hesitantly In the post-test 2, the students mean score was 6.2 They sometimes had occasional grammar slips but showed a good range of vocabulary They also had effective communication in long turns and could use grammatically correct sentences In addition, the improvement could also be found during the teaching learning process, that is they could correct the mistakes they made by themselves In addition, the atmosphere during the implementing of games also improved The improvement could be seen in the terms of their participation in answering question, asking the teacher if they got difficulties, paying attention to the teacher explanation, and increasing their motivation to learn The process of teaching and learning became more communicative and learning anxiety reduced The students were not ashamed of asking question to the teacher and answering her question They also were active discussing the task with their friends In the guessing game, they looked more competitive They had to discuss with their group to find the prediction of the words meant The competitive atmosphere also made them concentrate and think intensively during the learning process Based on the students’ opinion gathered from their diary, the result showed that they feel relaxed in speaking; they got new knowledge from the game played It also made the teaching leaning process become enjoyable and fun and their courage improved Based on the discussion of the result findings of the research in the previous chapter, I conclude that the use of games can improve the students’ speaking proficiency and make the atmosphere of the classroom become more alive 5.2 Implications In language teaching and learning, it is necessary to implement an appropriate method and technique It can be seen from this result findings that to make the teaching learning process successful, the teacher is not only the source of the knowledge and dominates the learning process She or he should create the situation where the students are involved in experiencing learning Based on the conclusion of this study, it can be 61 shown that after implementing the research, there are improvements of students’ speaking proficiency, encompassing both accuracy and fluency, the students’ behavior during the learning process, and the classroom atmosphere The implication includes:  The use of games helps the students to comprehend the vocabulary and grammar Finally, they can use the vocabulary, grammar and the expression in real communication  Games can make the students think intensively and concentrate in learning process By so doing, they will able to express their idea, think naturally  Games increase creativity and courage; they have more discussion with their friends It also increases their enthusiasts to ask the teacher about their difficulties  Games create fun learning situation, therefore it either makes the students enjoy or become more involved in their learning In other words it reduces their anxiety in learning and increase learning motivation The competition in games can stimulate and encourages them to participate in the activity since naturally they want to beat with other teams This study can be as a reference for the teacher in improving the quality in applying the effective technique toward improving the students’ learning motivation and achievement in learning English 62 REFERENCES  Anthony, E M (1963) Approach, Method and Technique English Language Teaching In Allen: Teaching English as a second language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  Ary, D (2002) Introduction to Research in Education, 6th edn United States of America: CBS College Publishing  Brown, H (1994) Teaching by Principles (an interactive approach to language pedagogy) Englewood Cliff, Nj: Prentice Hall  Burns, A (2010).Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioners London: Routledge  Bygate, Martin (1997) Speaking Oxford: Oxford 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(1996) Interactive language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  Sophie & Pavlos (2011) Assessing young learne Oxford university press  Stansfield, C W (1992) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines Available at: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rona Oclarit  Scott, W A & Ytreberg, L.H (1990) Teaching English to Children New York : Longman  Sumanto (1995) Metodologi Penelitian Sosial dan Pendidikan Yogyakarta: Andi Offset  Wright, A et al (1984) Games for Language Learning Cambridge University Press  http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/templates/index.html  http://genkienglish.net/balloon.htm 64 APPENDIX CRITERIA FOR GRADING THE SPEAKING SKILL Speaking Test Full name:…………………………… Class:………………………………… Date of birth:………………………… Place of test:………………………… Results Components Grade (Maximum 2.5 points for eachcomponent) (10-point scale) Pronunciation …………… Grammatical range and accuracy …………… Lexical resource …………… Fluency and coherence …………… Total: APPENDIX 65 SOME PICTURES ILLUSTRATING STUDENTS PLAYING LANGUAGE GAMES 66 67 68 69 ... decision to conduct research on ? ?Using language games to develop 5th graders’ speaking skill? ?? 1.2 Aims of the study The study aims to find effective ways to: - Investigate students’ attitude toward using. .. games to teach speaking skill 2.4.1 The definition of games 27 2.4.2 Characteristics of games 28 2.4.3 Kinds of games 28 2.4.4 Reasons for using language games to teach the speaking 30 skill. .. attitude toward using games in speaking lessons? What are the impacts of using games to teaching speaking to 5th graders? 1.5 Significance of the study The study is conducted with a view to improve 5th