Applying role play to develop speaking accuracy for the fifth graders

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRAN TAN LOC APPLYING ROLE-PLAY TO DEVELOP SPEAKING ACCURACY FOR THE FIFTH GRADERS MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRAN TAN LOC APPLYING ROLE-PLAY TO DEVELOP SPEAKING ACCURACY FOR THE FIFTH GRADERS MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Code: 8.14.01.11 SUPERVIOR: Assoc.Prof.Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong Nghe An, 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to fulfill this thesis, I have received remarkable assistance and support from my supervisor, lecturers, colleagues, students and my family First of all, I would like to express my special gratitude to my supervisor-Assoc Prof Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong for his constructive suggestions, encouragement, critical comments and valuable guidance during the whole process of writing of my Master‟s thesis; without his help in terms of ideas and academic documents that I could not have finished this thesis I am also grateful to all lecturers of Master thesis course in the Foreign Languages Department of Vinh University for their valuable lectures from which I have had such a great motivation and belief in the writing of this thesis I greatly appreciate to all the colleagues and students of class at Long Binh Primary School, Go Cong Tay district, Tien Giang Province for their cooperation in giving me a huge amount of valuable information Last but not least, I am in debt to my beloved family and my dedicated friends who help and encourage me during my studying process Vinh, August 2018 Tran Tan Loc i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby profess that this thesis is the result of my own study and that it has not been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially All statements of the thesis which are not my own are written in quotation and can be shown in the list of references Vinh, August 2018 Candiatate Tran Tan Loc ii ABSTRACT Nowadays, one of the purposes of learning foreign language especially second language is to communicate with other users of target language For a long time, speaking has been taught and examined as a separate skill in the classroom A subtaintial body of research showed that speaking skill plays an important role in the combination with other skills in the classroom The crucial objective of this research is to investigate and evaluate whether role play activities support to improve the students‟ speaking accuracy or for the fifth grade students at Long Binh Primary school, Go Cong Tay district, Tien Giang province This study is action research that was helped by the English teacher as a collaborator The research was executed at Long Binh Primary School in Go Cong Tay district in the Academic Year 2017-2018 from September 2017 to April 2018 The researcher used action research in this study The subject of the research is the students of grade five with 30 students chosen at random to explore both their learning experience, their awareness as well as their expectation towards the learning of English at Long Binh Primary school The data were collected through classroom observation, interviews, and tests The researcher taught speaking English using role play activities The action consisted of two cycles in which each cycle consists of four elements, namely: planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting To collect the data the researcher used observation, questionnaire and tests (pre-test and post-test) The result of the research shows that, by implementing role play in teaching speaking, the students have chance to be active and cooperative in teaching speaking They may speak English more accurately iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CAR: Classroom Action Research TEFL: Teaching English as Foreign Language PPP: Presentation Practice Production iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1: The rating scores of oral test Table 2: The students‟ speaking scores of pre-test, post-test 1, post-test Table 3: The result of Statistical Accounts of post-test in 2nd cycle Table 4: Students‟ response to the use of role play in speaking class Table 5: Students‟ response to the effectiveness of role play in improving their speaking skill Table 6: Students‟attitude towards role play activity Table 7: The average score of role play in speaking classes Table 8: The students‟ problem and its solutions FIGURES Figure 1: Kurt‟s Lewin‟s action research design Figure 2: The students‟ response on role play conducted by the teacher Figure 3: The students‟ evaluation of role play Figure 4: The improvement of students‟ speaking components through using role play v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1.Rationale 1.2 Problem statements 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Objective of the study 1.5 Research questions 1.6 Scope of the study 1.7 Significance of the study 1.8 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Communicative Language Approach 2.1.1 History of Communicative language approach 2.1.2 The use communicative language approach 2.1.3 Classroom activities in communicative language approach 2.2 The nature of speaking 10 2.2.1 Definition of nature of speaking 10 2.2.2 Principles of Teaching Speaking 12 2.2.3 Roles of speaking skill in language teaching 13 2.2.4 Types of Speaking Performance 14 2.2.5 Speaking components 16 vi 2.3 Teaching speaking 18 2.3.1 Reasons for teaching speaking 18 2.3.2 The purpose of teaching speaking 19 2.3.3 The assessment of teaching speaking 20 2.4 Teaching Speaking through Role-Play 22 2.4.1 Definition of Role-Play 22 2.4.2 The importance of applying role play 23 2.4.3 Problems in role play 25 2.4.4 Technique to control role play 25 2.4.5 The purpose of role play 26 2.4.6 Teacher‟s role 26 2.4.7 Learners‟ role 27 2.4.8 Teaching speaking applying role play 27 2.5 Types and procedures of Role play 29 2.5.1 Scripted Role play 29 2.5.2 Unscripted Role play 30 2.6 Summary 31 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 33 3.1 The subject of research 33 3.2 Research setting 33 3.2.1 The place and time of the research 33 3.2.2 Population 34 3.2.3 The textbook 35 3.3 Research instruments 35 3.3.1 Research procedures 35 3.3.2 Data analysis 39 3.3.3 The questionnaire 39 vii 3.3.4 Observation 40 3.3.5 Pilot teaching 40 3.3.6 Test 40 3.4.Method of the research 41 3.5.Summary 42 CHAPTER RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 44 4.1 Findings 44 4.1.1 Introduction 44 4.1.2 The implementations of the Actions 45 4.1.3 Findings after Implementing the Classroom Action Research 52 4.1.4 Students‟ attitudes toward role play 523 4.1.5 Students‟ response about using role play in speaking class 56 4.1.6 The effectiveness of role play in improving speaking skill 58 4.1.7 The improvement of speaking accuracy using role play 59 4.2 Discussion 62 4.3.Summary 64 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 65 5.1 Conclusion 65 5.2 Implication 67 5.2.1 Implication for English Teachers 67 5.2.2 Implication for Students 68 5.2.3 Implication for further study 69 5.3 Limitations and suggestions 70 REFERENCES 72 APPENDICES 74 viii 15 x 16 17 x x 18 19 x x 20 x 21 x 22 x 23 x 24 x 25 x 26 x 27 28 x x 29 x 30 x TOTAL 12 18 30 The procedure of data collecting used in this study are: Greeting: The aim of this part is to warm up the class before going in the new lesson Then, the teacher guides the students what they are going to study Presentation stage: First, the teacher guides roles to students Second, the teacher divides the class into groups The next, the teacher explains the situation, the roles that they have to practice in role play 75 period The teacher also provides the information, vocabulary or model what is necessary Finally, the teacher limits the group work time The method that was used in this stage is discourse method Practice stage: In this stage, The teacher calls the students to begin the role play The teacher pays attention to them, check and help as the students need The method that was used in this stage is experiment method Production stage: This stage requires students to evaluate After that, the teacher gives feedback on pronunciation, grammar, fluency problems Through this stage, it helps to know students‟ communicative ability Dialogue method was used as a method in this phase Pilot teaching 2.1 Activities and procedures Speaking lessons for 5th graders at Long Binh primary school was chosen to illustare how role play were used in this period The pilot teaching was carried out in two classes at Long Binh primary school The feedback of students and teachers‟ comments were collected after the pilot teaching Besides, the researcher‟s evaluation that can help teaching speaking skills at this level become more communicative and successful 76 LESSON PLAN Period: 81 Unit 1: They’re from Australia Lesson I OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lesson students will be able to ask and answer about you and your favorite season II TEACHING AIDS: Text book, pictures, season flash cards, projector, and handouts III PROCEDURES: 1-Settlement: Greeting the class & checking students‟ attendance 2- New lesson: Teacher’s activities Students’ activities WARM-UP: Listen a song and stand up(5 mins) - Tell children they are going to listen a song “Twelve months -Listen, sing and in a year” Children must stand up when they hear their stand up when birthday month they hear their birthday month -Ask and answer -Ask students to practise asking and answering by using the question “When‟s your birthday? -Give feedback -Lead into the new lesson Listen and PRESENTATION 77 Activity 1: Answer the questions? ( 5mins) answer the questions How many questions are there? Are they talking about yourself? Lead in: Can you guess what topic will we discuss today? Listen => Today we will talk about you and your favorite season Read the -Call some students to read the questions in this activity questions - Call some pairs ask and answer these questions Ask and answer -The scores are taken in five criteria follow, which is pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, comprehension and accuracy - Give feedback Listen Activity 2: Interview (7mins) -write the headings from worksheet on the board Elicit the questions that the children need to ask their classmates to complete the worksheet -Give each child one copy of worksheet and tell them to mingle and interview eight different classmates They should Interview and fill in the worksheet fill in their answers on the worksheet -Monitor and help where needed Activity 3: scripted role- play( using the suggestions given in your handouts) (12 mins) Card 1: Student A Use card to ask Now ask and answer, using the suggestions below: What’s your name? 78 and answer How are you? Where are you from? When’s your birthday? What’s your favorite season? What you in your favorite season? Card 2: Student B Student B Now ask and answer, using the suggestions below: You are an avid stamp col collecting stamps as his/he What’s your name? him/ her, using the sugges How are you? - Buy from post office Where are you from? - Ask member of family, When’s your birthday? - Make friends with peop What’s your favorite season? - Exchange stamps with - Classify stamps into What you in your favorite season? landscape, people( h - Teacher gives handouts to students singers ) - Ask ss to work in pairs to make the conversation and role - Keep stamps in albums - Broaden your knowle play people, plans,treesColl - Limit the time for the activity - Call some pairs to present your conversation in front of the Role play class - Comment and give feedback Activity 4: Unscripted role- play( using the suggestions given in your handouts) (13 mins) 79 Your friend is going to VietNam You are supposed to communicate with him/her You introduce about the personal information and describe about the season as well as the activities in these seasons - Teacher gives handouts to students Listen and - Ask ss to work in pairs to make the conversation and role play - Limit the time for the activity ( minutes) - Call some pairs to present your conversation in front of the class - Comment and give feedback HOME WORK: ( 3mins) - write a paragraph about your classmate using the questions above - Prepare the next unit Listen and 80 Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers at Long Binh primary school QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is served as a data collection tool for a piece of research to attain a Master‟s degree in teaching English to Speakers of other Languages You are kindly asked to fill in this questionnaire ,which is designed to assess your attitudes towards using role plays as a technique to develop the pupils‟ speaking accuracy The answer, therefore, should be frank and accurate to your own opinion and teaching context Thank you very much for your cooperation! Please put a tick (√) in the box that you choose I Background information on teacher Your qualification BA MA How long have you been teaching English at Long Binh primary school? Less than years From to 10 years Over 10 years Have you ever attended in any workshops of teaching speaking skill? Yes No II Teacher’s experience in teaching speaking at primary schools ( More than one choice is acceptable in some sentences) 81 In your opinion, speaking skill is… a very necessary b necessary c not quite necessary d not necessary Do you think teaching speaking skill is difficult? Y Yes No Are you satisfied with your students level in speaking skill? Yes No Do you think that role play is an effective technique to be applied in EFL? Yes No How often you use role play activities in teaching speaking skills to the 5h graders at primary school? Often Sometimes Rarely Never Are there role play activities in your English textbook for the 5th graders communicative? Yes No Not sure Why you think role play activities should be used in speaking lesson? To encourage students to speak the target language To stimulate the students‟ motivation To have the students get out of shyness To meet the demand of students‟ communicative purposes All the above mentioned reasons Role play is said to be a good technique to improve students’ speaking accuracy? 82 Yes No During a role play activity, you should: Not to interfere Interfere whenever you find your students make mistake Collect students‟ common mistakes without interfering them Join the activities with students as a participant Encourage all students to participate in the activities 10 What you think the benefits of the use of role play activities in teaching English speaking skill to 5th graders at primary school? Increasing students‟ motivation in learning Providing communicative contexts for students Creating natural learning Helping students develop their language skill totally 11 Which problems you face when designing and using role play activities in teaching English speaking skill for 5th graders? Limitation of time to prepare Limitation of time to apply in classroom Speaking activities in the textbooks are not communicative Class size is not suitable to use the communicative activities Students lack of knowledge of English to express themselves Students are passive and shy Lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids 83 Appendix 2: Questionnaire for grade students at Long Binh primary school PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA Bảng câu hỏi nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu ý kiến học sinh việc sử dụng hoạt động giao tiếp (role play) dạy kỹ nói Tiếng Anh Trường Tiểu học Long Bình 3, huyện Gị Cơng Tây, Tiền Giang Câu trả lời em học sinh quan trọng việc điều tra nhằm minh chứng cho thành công đề tài nghiên cứu.Mong hợp tác em! Hãy đánh dấu (√) vào phương án em chọn điền thông tin vào chỗ trống I Thông tin cá nhân học sinh - Tuổi: ………………………… - Số năm bạn học Tiếng Anh: ……………………… - Số học sinh lớp em: < 30 học sinh 30-35học sinh II Kinh nghiệm học sinh việc học nói Tiếng Anh (Có thể chọn 01 phương án số câu hỏi) Em có thích học kĩ nói khơng? Có Khơng Theo em, kỹ nói em đạt đến đâu? Tốt Trung bình Yếu Khá Hoạt động giáo viên thường sử dụng dạy kỹ nói? Câu chuyện Bài hội thoại Đóng vai Phỏng vấn 84 Em cảm thấy tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai học nói Tiếng Anh? Hứng thú, sôi Không thoải mái Lúng túng Chán Em có thích học nói tiếng Anh trường khơng? Rất thích Có thích Khơng thích Khơng thích Nếu có, yếu tố làm em cảm thấy hứng thú học nói tiếng Anh? Phương pháp giảng dạy giáo viên thu hút Các hoạt động giao tiếp thú vị dùng để luyện tập tiếng Anh Có hội nói tiếng Anh nhiều Có thể phát triển kỹ nói Ngun nhân khiến em khơng thích? Khơng thích học tiếng Anh Chủ đề nói chán Phương pháp giáo viên không hấp dẫn Vốn Tiếng Anh em cịn yếu Có q nhiều từ vựng cấu trúc Ngại nói Giáo viên em thường bắt đầu tiết học nói Tiếng Anh cách nào? Khởi động trò chơi, hát, chant Đặt câu hỏi liên quan đến chủ đề nói Giới thiệu chủ đề tiết nói Giới thiệu từ vựng cấu trúc câu Em có đóng vai trình diễn trước lớp chưa? 85 Có Khơng 10 Có hoạt động đóng vai sách giáo khoa Family and Friends Special Edition khơng? Có Khơng 11 Em có thích hoạt động đóng vai học nói tiếng Anh khơng? Có Khơng có ý kiến Khơng 12 Hoạt động đóng vai giúp em phát triển kỹ nói xác lưu lốt khơng? Có Khơng Appendix 3: Oral test  Pre-test: Now ask and answer, using the suggestions below: What’s your name? How are you? Where are you from? When’s your birthday? What’s your favorite season? What you in your favorite season?  Post-test: Your friend is going to VietNam You are supposed to communicate with him/her You introduce about the personal information and describe about the season as well as the activities in these seasons 86 Appendix 4: Teachers‟ Feedback to Pilot Teaching LESSON FEEDBACK SHEET Teacher: …………………………………… Date: …………… Time allotted: ……………………………… What you think of the students’ motivation? a Highly motivated b More motivated than usual c As usual d Less motivated What you think of the effectiveness of speaking activities? Activities Effectiveness Effective Not so effective Not effective at all Warm-up Pre-teaching vocabulary Lead-in Scripted role play Unscripted role play Your suggestions: ……………………………………………………………… 87 Appendix 5: Students‟ Feedback to Pilot Teaching PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT BÀI GIẢNG (Dành cho học sinh ) Em khoanh vào 01 lựa chọn a, b, c d Em có thích giảng ngày hơm khơng? a Có b Khơng c Khơng có ý kiến Em có thích hoạt động “Nghe hát đứng dậy” mở đầu học khơng? a Có b Khơng c Khơng có ý kiến Hoạt động dẫn dắt vào có hữu ích cho em khơng? a Có b Khơng c Khơng có ý kiến Hoạt động khiến em gặp khó khăn giảng hơm nay? a Đóng vai khơng theo lời thoại có sẵn b Đóng vai theo lời thoại có sẵn Chỉ dẫn giáo viên cho hoạt động nào? a Ngắn gọn rõ ràng b Chưa rõ dài dòng c Khơng có ý kiến Em thấy hoạt động nào? a Mang tính giao tiếp b Thú vị c Chán d Khơng có ý kiến 88 Appendix 6: Rubric for evaluating speaking test Oral Presentation Rubric : RUBRIC FOR SPEAKING SKILL Teacher Name: Mr Tran Students groups/pairs CATEGORY Uses words appropriate for the audience Uses words appropriate for the audience Includes 12 words that might be new to most of the audience, but does not define them Content Shows a full understanding of the topic Shows a good Shows a good understanding of the understanding of topic parts of the topic Grammar Accuracy & variety of Some errors in grammatical structure grammatical structures Frequent grammatical errors even in simple structures that at times obscure meaning Student is unable to accurately answer questions posed by classmates about the topic Fluency Smooth flow quick, continuous flow Natural pauses Does not complete utterances Pronunciation Pronunciation is Pronunciation is excellent; good effort good; good effort at at accent accent Frequent hesitations, searches for words Overly translates questions before response Pronunciation is okay Word choice Occasional hesitation, searching for words Speaker can selfcorrect and respond to cues Uses words appropriate for the audience Does not include any vocabulary that might be new to the audience Score/4 Uses several (5 or more) words or phrases that are not understood by the audience Does not seem to understand the topic very well onunciation is lacking and hard to understand /10 Total Powered by TeAch-nology.com-The Web Portal For Educators! (www.teach-nology.com) 89 ... of role play Role playing helps to bring the language to life and to give the learners some experience of its use as a means of communication Therefore, the main purpose of role play is to develop. .. other skills in the classroom The crucial objective of this research is to investigate and evaluate whether role play activities support to improve the students‟ speaking accuracy or for the fifth. .. to reach the objectives of the research as follows: - To observe students‟ attitudes through using role play in speaking activities - To implement role play technique to assess whether role play