An investigation into the practice of teaching the speaking skill to sixth graders a case study of vinh city

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LE VIET THAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRACTICE OF TEACHING THE SPEAKING SKILL TO SIXTH GRADERS: A CASE STUDY OF VINH CITY MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LE VIET THAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRACTICE OF TEACHING THE SPEAKING SKILL TO SIXTH GRADERS: A CASE STUDY OF VINH CITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Dr Tran Ba Tien MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere Author Le Viet Than i ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to investigate the practice of teaching the speaking skills of the sixth graders of Vinh lower secondary schools In conducting this research, the researcher took a survey and interviewed as the method of the research To collect data, the researcher used instruments of interviews and questionnaires in order to support the data collected The research findings showed that the techniques teachers used in teaching speaking lessons played an important role in improving the speaking abilities of the student in class These techniques can facilitate the students to speak English This can be seen from the result of the questionnaire and the survey Based on the findings, implications for teaching and learning the speaking skill and suggestions for the future research were also proposed ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Tran Ba Tien, who directly instructed and helped me carry out the study His detailed feedback and insight, his kindness and enthusiasm have encouraged me over the time of conducting the study Next, I would like to show my special thankfulness to Administrators and teachers of Vinh University who helped me a lot during my study, research here and completing this thesis Then, I would really thank my leadership and colleagues of Vinh Education and Training department for their friendliness, generous assistance which contributed significantly to the result of the study Moreover, I am also grateful to 50 teachers of English working in Vinh Lower Secondary Schools who helped me to answer the questionnaire as well as interview questions enthusiastically Last but not least, I would like to devote my special thanks to my dear family, my dear wife, my dear children for their love and encouragement during the process of the study iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Design of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 A historical overview of language teaching methods 2.1.1 Grammar translation method 2.1.2 Direct method 10 2.1.3 Audiolingual methods 11 2.1.4 Total physical response 13 2.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 14 2.2.1 Concept of CLT 15 2.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 16 2.2.3 Conditions of Applying CLT 17 2.2.4 Factors affecting CLT application 18 2.3 Speaking skill 18 2.3.1 Concepts of speaking 18 2.3.2 Characteristics of speaking 19 2.3.3 The Development approach of speaking skill 20 2.3.4 The roles of speaking in language learning and teaching 22 2.3.5 Difficulties EFL learners have when learning speaking 23 2.4 Methods of teaching speaking 24 2.4.1 Goals and techniques for teaching speaking 24 2.4.2 Strategies for developing speaking skills 26 2.4.3 Developing speaking skills 27 2.5 Different speaking activities 30 iv 2.5.1 The use of authentic materials 30 2.5.2 The scrambled sentences 30 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 32 3.1 The setting of the study 32 3.2 The participants 32 3.3 Materials 33 3.4 Data collection instruments 34 3.4.1 The Data collection methods 34 3.4.2 Data collection instrument 34 3.5 Procedure 35 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1 Results 37 4.1.1 Result of teachers‟ survey questionnaires 37 4.1.2 Result of teachers‟ interview 46 4.2 Discussion 52 4.2.1 Some common techniques teachers use in teaching speaking skill to sixth graders in Vinh city 52 4.2.2 Some mismatch between textbook and teachers‟ actual performance in classes 53 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 57 5.1 Summary of the main findings 57 5.2 Recommendation for effective exploitation of techniques to enhance students‟ motivation in speaking activities 59 5.2.1 Organizing classroom techniques: 59 5.2.2 Communication promoting techniques 61 5.3 Limitations 62 5.4 Suggested for further research 62 Reference .63 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Teacher‟s opinions about CLT (Question 1) 38 Figure 4.2 Teachers‟ reasons about CLT usage 39 Figure 4.3 Teachers‟ attitude toward students' motivation in speaking activities 40 Figure 4.4 Teachers‟ ways of organizing students in speaking activities 40 Figure 4.5 Teachers‟ reason for organizing students in pairs and in groups 41 Figure 4.6 Teachers‟ choice of kinds of tasks for speaking activities 42 Figure 4.7 Teachers‟ choice of tasks‟ level of difficulty for speaking activities 42 Figure 4.8 Teachers' choice of topic for speaking activities 43 Figure 4.9 Teachers‟ frequency of using visual aids in speaking activities 44 Figure 4.10 Teachers‟ frequency of giving correction to students 44 Figure 4.11 Teachers‟ frequency of giving praise or criticism to students .45 Figure 4.12 Teachers‟ common methods in teaching speaking to 6th graders 46 vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Teaching English includes four skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing (In fact, at the first stage of teaching, teachers must prioritize the listening and speaking In fact, teaching speaking in classes faces a lot of difficulties because of the many reasons, which are both objective and subjective as well Therefore, speaking is always believed to be the most important skill Before the National Foreign Language Project 2020, Teaching speaking in classes mainly used to focus on repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues and this partly affects the ways of teaching English nowadays Speaking skill nowadays plays a much more important role in modern English than ever before In every English class, teachers would like to develop students‟ speaking skill by applying the communicative language teaching method known as one of the most effective approaches that help students speak With the aims of the National Foreign Language Project 2020, speaking skill is to be taught at schools to enable students to communicate with any foreigners who can speak English Teaching English under the National Foreign Language Project 2020 has been carried out in Vinh schools quite for many years but due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular has not come up to the study goals Observing a lot of lessons at many schools in Vinh city, I have found that 6th students are usually shy, hesitate, unconfident when speaking the target language in class Although, teachers prepare the lessons very well before class and have tried to give a lot of opportunities to students to speak, the result is not good For most students, they see that speaking is very important yet challenging one Being as a teacher of English as well as a language coordinator of teaching and learning English in Vinh city, I always concern about how to help teachers and students overcome this challenging In fact, the effectiveness of teaching and learning speaking depends on many factors in which an importantly psychological one is motivation Students without motivation or poor motivation may have low study result Each person when learning English wants to master the language competence and uses it as a means of communication, but the matter is how to master the language ability Are students really motivated in learning speaking English and at which level? As a language coordinator, I realize that although both the teachers and students try their best to reach their goals to teach and study English Speaking skill effectively, up to now the results have been still far from satisfaction Hence, I would like to something with a hope to improve speaking skills for our students so that I have carried out the study entitled: “An investigation into the practice of teaching the speaking skill to 6th graders: A case study of Vinh city ” 1.2 Aims of the study The main purpose of this study is to investigate the practice of teaching speaking skills to the sixth graders in order to find out the techniques teachers often use to teach sixth graders speaking skill in English classes to improve the effectiveness of English learning and teaching, especially teaching and learning speaking The research is carried out with the hope to find out the mismatch between the content in the textbook and the content that teachers perform in classes 1.3 Research questions The above aims of the study can be realized by the following research questions: What are common techniques teachers use in teaching speaking skill to sixth graders in Vinh city? Is there any mismatch between the content in the textbook and the content that teachers perform in classes? if so, what are the underlying reasons? The two research questions are the basis and the direction for me to carry out the research in a consistent way 1.4 Scope of the study The study only focuses on the common practice of teaching speaking skill to sixth graders in Vinh city Although I am well aware that the survey statistics are not fully representative of all teachers of English at all Secondary schools in Vinh city, I hope to propose some of the most popular facts occurring in the study CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the main findings This study aims at exploring the real needs for teaching and learning English at Lower Secondary Schools in Vinh city This research investigates two following issues: What are the common techniques teachers use in teaching speaking skill to sixth graders in Vinh city? Is there any mismatch between the content in the textbook and the content that teachers perform in classes? And if so, what are the underlying reasons? In this chapter, I have presented the data and the information collected through the two survey questionnaires for teachers of English Basing on the data and information, I have carried out analysis to find out teachers‟ common techniques in teaching English and their actual performance in classes From this, teachers will find out the suitable way for themselves in teaching In this chapter, the date concerning the reality of teaching and learning speaking at Vinh schools has been collected, described Especially, through the collected data, the research questions ask about the common methods of teaching 6th graders The survey data of questionnaire for teachers can reveal some of the reasons for this Accordingly, sometimes their teachers‟ teaching ways bore them, the teacher talking time is too much now but too little then, and they not give students enough time for preparation In actual performance in class, most teachers and students held the view that speaking is very important and so are the techniques applied which teachers often use to enhance students‟ motivation in speaking activities In order to motivate students to speak English in class, teachers used many techniques such as: role playing, discussion, problem solving, songs and games, information gap, picture or event describing, story-telling, drama, and picture or event describing, asking and answering, group-work or pair –work and networks Many of them try to use motivation enhancing techniques which should be interesting and suitable to students‟ level of English Besides, when the techniques are used, some problems arise and reduce the effectiveness of the techniques such as lack of time, large-sized 57 classes, students‟ shyness and inadequacy of English, etc as they were found out and analyzed Thanks to these findings, I will give out appropriate recommendations in the next chapter The information from the interview indicates that they not apply CLT flexibly in their teaching speaking such as their repertoires of speaking teaching are not various, their knowledge of teaching steps is not really good and their opinion on the criteria for a good speaking lesson are little are too simple The first finding in Chapter indicates that most of the teachers know CLT quite well and they always use the techniques which encourage students to speak English in class It also means that the textbook Tieng Anh plays an important part in the teaching and learning process An appropriate syllabus helps teachers a lot during the teaching process in which students have chance to speak English very much However, the teachers being asked to admitted that there are some mismatch between the textbook and the actual teaching of the teachers They are: the talking time in each lesson is limited; some projects with 6th grade students such as Project of my dream appliance (English Unit 10), My future appliance (English - Unit 12) are high demanding; the content of knowledge is wide; some topics are not close to reality knowledge of students, especially students and even teachers as Robots (English 6) and there are some excessive vocabulary words (English 6-Unit 3: Communicative) As stated previously in Chapter of the thesis, the purpose of the research is to investigate the practice of teaching the speaking skill to 6th graders: From theory to practice with the new textbook “English 6” Basically, the study has achieved its aim through thoroughly review of related literature and a combination of methods in designing and analyzing survey questionnaires for both teachers As far as the theoretical background is concerned, the Literature Review presented main points related to speaking and teaching speaking, such as writing and its roles, approaches to teaching speaking Also, theories on speaking activities were discussed because of their integral part in teaching speaking skill In order to investigate the reality of teachers‟ experience in using techniques in teaching speaking and their opinions towards this method of teaching, a survey 58 has been conducted with the participation of fifty teachers at some Lower-secondary schools in Vinh city The results collected from the survey were then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively Important findings for the study have been drawn from this analysis The results reveal that the application of techniques in speaking lessons can bring about desirable benefits to both teachers and students The most important finding is that the teachers‟ techniques make students motivated and feel easier to carry out speaking tasks in speaking classes Since teachers are actually aware of these strengths of techniques, they often apply these techniques in their teaching process However, teachers‟ application of these techniques in reality is still limited due to such many subjective and objective reasons as limited time, class size, mixleveled students, lack of facilities, unsuitable provided activities, students‟ learning style, etc Thus, to some extent, the research has discovered the reality of teaching and learning the writing sections in the new textbook “English 6” through the findings drawn from the survey Beside positive findings as mentioned above, it should be admitted the fact that teaching and learning English speaking skills still have been far from satisfaction Learning speaking seems to be a burden to many students at Lower-secondary schools The possible reasons to account for this may partly lie in the inadequate method of teaching Therefore, whatever pedagogical approach is applied in speaking teaching, it is desirable that speaking skills should be integrated into the work of the learners, which needs to be made suitable for their objectives and levels of ability A potential strategy to address to the problems of low speaking proficiency and low interest in learning and teaching would be the implementation of common techniques in teaching speaking 5.2 Recommendation for effective exploitation of techniques to enhance students’ motivation in speaking activities 5.2.1 Organizing classroom techniques: Organizing students in the classroom in pairs or in small group is a good solution to solve the problem of students‟ lack of motivation, of large-sized classes, etc 59 - Pair work: In pair work, the teacher divides the whole class into pairs Every students works with his or her partner and all the pair work at the same time They can face and talk to the students next to them or turn to the person sitting behind them or if possible, they can exchange their seats to work with their working partners rather than their neighbors - Group work: Group work is a technique in which two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaborations and self-initiated language In other words that is the group in which members have a clear perception of the purpose and goal of the activity It is important to note that group work usually implies small group work, that is, students in groups of perhaps six or fewer - Advantages of pair work and group work First, pair work and group work often create interactive language In the socalled traditional language class, the teacher‟s talk is dominant However, this kind of organizing students, helps to solve the problem of classes that are too large to offer many opportunities to speak, which is a typical feature of classes I Vietnam Small groups provide students with opportunities for students‟ initiation, for negotiation of meaning, etc Second, students will feel more secure when each individual does not have to face the whole class, the large audience, avoiding criticism and rejection Shy students are often more active to involve in the process of learning The small group becomes a community of learners cooperating with each other in pursuit of common goals Third, pair work and group work promote learners‟ responsibility and autonomy Working in a small group forces each member to contribute to the work of the whole Group work places responsibility for action and progress upon each of the member of the group somewhat equally Therefore, group work enables students to form the ability to learn independently 60 - Ways of organizing pair work and group work Teachers can pair strong with strong, weak with weak or strong with weak, but they have to be sensitive enough to general relationship between different students and learn also to note who work well with him In group work, there are a number of ways to group students However, it is necessary that rules of grouping should be changed frequently Followings arise some way to form groups: + Number the students: 1,2,3 and 4, and then students who have the same number will make a group + Form groups basing on clothes‟ colors + Group students according to the month of birth + Draw lots: students who draw the same lots make a group + Allow students to choose a partner to work with After groups are formed, it is time to appoint group leaders who will regulate the groups‟ activities It should be noted that teachers should vary the ways of choosing leaders so that each student has a chance to be group leader at least one time 5.2.2 Communication promoting techniques Teachers often use the following information gaps to help students to promote them to speak in speaking lessons They are: + The information gap: This is the classic gap exploited by the communicative approach, the information gap is ideally suited to pair and small group work and usually relies upon pre-prepared information card + The experience gap: All students in the classroom have different experiences in their lives, so this is immediately a gap This kind of gap can be easily noticed in class where students are of different backgrounds or ages The experience gap can be easily exploited in questionnaires particularly those that aim at practicing past tense form + The opinion gap: Different students have different feelings, opinions, events, etc When they find out about others‟ feelings, opinions, they are closing the gap between them This kind of gap can be used to make personalized activities for students such as expressing personal opinions about well-known people 61 + The knowledge gap: Students know different things about the world; thus, it can be used to create speaking activities in which students share their knowledge about a certain thing, topic, or place…with their friends 5.3 Limitations Although the researcher has put great effort to complete this thesis as possible, limitations are unavoidable Firstly, due to the time, the questionnaires were administered to a small population of teachers of English I cannot interview all the secondary teachers in Vinh city, which may reduce the objectivity and reliability of the research results I believe that during my coming work, if I spend more time and have better conditions, I can well solve this limitation Secondly, the research was carried out in short time Meanwhile, analyzing teachers‟ survey and interview is a time-consuming process In addition, within the scope of the research and ability of the researcher, a variety of suggestions require time to experience However, I still hope that my study can be used as a useful reference for secondary teachers of English in Vinh city as well as in other areas Finally, all these may lead to the limitation of the interpretation of the data collection for needs analysis Moreover, due to the limited time, some aspects in the textbook have not been mentioned in this study These are suggestions for further study in this field 5.4 Suggested for further research Based on the findings and the limitations of the study, the following recommendation is made for further research The research can be extended in a large scope with other Lower Secondary Schools in Nghe An province This should be carried out with large numbers of participants if there is more time As a result, the research would be more effective, reliable and convincing In short, despite the above shortcomings, it is hoped that it will contribute to the success of the English teaching and learning process of the teachers and the students of The Lower Secondary Schools in Vinh city Thus, it can help students and give them encouragement as well as knowledge they need for their future career 62 REFERENCE Le Van Canh (2004) Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology.Vietnam National University, Hanoi Publisher Hoàng Văn Vân- Nguyễn Thị Chi- Lê Kim Dung- Phan Chí Nghĩa- Lưu Quý Khương- Vũ Mai Trang- Lương Quỳnh Trang- David Kaye (2012) Tiếng Anh 6- Nhà xuất giáo dục Hoàng Văn Vân- Nguyễn Thị Chi- Lê Kim Dung- Phan Chí Nghĩa- Vũ Mai Trang- Lương Quỳnh Trang -Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn- David Kaye (2012) Tiếng Anh (tập tập 2)- Sách giáo viên Nhà xuất giáo dục Tuan, N H., & Mai, T N (2015) Factors Affecting Students‟ Speaking Performance at Le Thanh Hien High School Asian Journal of Educational Research, 3(2), 8-23 Andersen, Peter A (1999) Nonverbal Communication: Forms and Functions CA: Mayfield Publishing Company Baker, J., & Westrup, H (2003) Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language Teachers London: Continuum Berns, M S (1984) Functional approaches to language and language teaching: Another look In S Savignon & M S Berns (Eds.), Initiatives in communicative language teaching A book of readings (pp 3-21) Reading, PA: Addison-Wesley Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge University Press Brown HD (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Third Edition) Englewood Cliffs, N.J Prentice Hall, Inc 10 Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents 11 Bygates, M.(1987) Speaking Oxford University Press 12 Byrne, D.(1991) Teaching Oral Language Learning Long Man 13 Cameron Lynne (2001) Teaching language to young learners 14 Chaney, A (1998) Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8 USA A Viacom Company 63 15 Efrizal, D (2012) Improving Students‟ Speaking through Communicative Language Teaching Method International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(20), 127-134 16 Freeman D.L (2000), Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Psycholinguistics & Language Teaching Methodology 17 Harmer, J (1983) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman Inc, New York 18 Littlewood, W (1981).Communicative language teaching Cambridge University Press 19 Mackey, W.F (1965) Language Teaching analysis Long man 20 Nunan, D (1989) Designing task for the Communicative Classroom, C.U.P 21 Richards, J C., & Rodgers, T S (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 22 Rivers, W M (1981) Teaching Foreign Language Skills (2nd edition) Chicago: University of Chicago Press 23 Savignon & M S Berns (Eds.), "Initiatives in communicative language teaching A book of readings" (3-21) Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley 24 Scrivener, J (1994).Learning teaching Oxford: Macmillan Publishers Limited 25 Skinner, B.F (16 Apr 1984) "The operational analysis of psychological terms" Behavioral and brain sciences (4): 547–581 26 Ur, P (1996) A course in language teaching Cambridge University Press 27 Ur, P (2000) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 28.www.google.com.vn/search?q=A+historical+overview+of+language+teaching+ methods&oq 29 Wilkins, D A (1972), Linguistics in Language Teaching London: Adward Arnold – A Division of Holder and Stoughton Ltd 64 APPENDIX TEACHERS’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “An investigation into the practice of teaching the speaking skill to 6th graders: A case study of Vinh city.” Your assistance in fulfilling the following items is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for any other purpose Please, circle one of the options following each question What you think of the role of CLT compared with those of other methods (DM, TPR, GTM)….? a very important b important c not important What you think about CLT? (You can circle all the options If you think they are true) It is _ a Is learner-centered b Focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself c Emphasizes on fluency than on accuracy d Does not teach grammar What you think about motivating students to speak English? a Very important b Important c Not important Which ways of organization you usually in speaking activities? a Individual work b Pair work or group work Why you decide to have students work in pairs or groups? a To make the atmosphere more interesting b To give students a chance to exchange ideas with each other c To give shy students a chance to express themselves d To increase students‟ talking time What kinds of tasks for speaking activities you often give your students? a Only speaking tasks in the textbooks a b Speaking activities in Tieng Anh are mixed with games, role-play, etc Which level of difficulty of the tasks in speaking activities you often give your students? a Very difficult compared with their level of English (e.g.: reading aloud a dialogue…) b Appropriate or a bit difficult compared with their level of English c Easy compared with their level of English What kinds of topics for speaking activities you often give your students? a Only one topic for the whole class b Multi topics for the whole class to choose Do you often use visual aids in speaking activities? a Always b Sometimes c Rarely d Never 10 When your students make mistakes in speaking activities, you a Always correct their mistakes, even when they are speaking eagerly b Only correct basic mistakes, at an appropriate time (e.g.: when they stop speaking) c Almost never correct their mistakes, letting them speak freely 11 How often you give praise or criticism to students ? a Only praise or criticise students basing on other performance b Frequently praise students regardless of their performances c Frequently criticise students 12 What are the common methods you often use in teaching speaking skill to 6th graders? (You can choose more than one option) a Grammar Translation Method (GTM) b Situational Language Teaching (SLT) c Direct Method (DM) d Audiolingual Method (ALM) e Community Language Learning (CLL) f Total Physical Response (TPR) b APPENDIX Interview Questions for Teachers This survey questionnaire is designed for my study “An investigation into the practice of teaching the speaking skill to 6th graders: A case study of Vinh city.” Your assistance in fulfilling the following items is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for any other purpose Please write your ideas in the blanks provided Question What techniques have you been using to teach 6th graders in the speaking lessons? Answer………………………………………………………………… What steps you usually have in a speaking lesson? Question Answer………………………………………………………………… What you often when your students are reluctant to Question speak? Answer………………………………………………………………… Question What you think teachers should to prevent your students from using Vietnamese in group work and pair work? Answer………………………………………………………………… Question Do you often feel satisfied with your speaking lessons? Why?/Why not? ………………………………………………………………………… Question What factors are needed for a good speaking lesson? Answer………………………………………………………………… Question What kind of tasks for speaking activities in Tieng Anh you prefer? Answer………………………………………………………………… Question What you think about the design of speaking lessons in the new “English 6” text book? Answer………………………………………………………………… Question What difficulties you face with during speaking lessons when c applying the textbook Tieng Anh 6? Answer………………………………………………………………… Question 10 Is there any mismatch between the textbook Tieng Anh and teachers‟ actual performance in classes? And if so, what are the underlying reasons? Answer………………………………………………………………… d APPENDIX TEACHERS ‘QUESTIONNAIRES DATE What you think of the role of CLT compared with those of other methods (DM, TPR, GTM)….? a 96% a very important b 4% b important c 0% c not important What you think about CLT? (You can circle all the options If you think they are true) It a 30% a Is learner-centered b 40% b Focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself c 30% c Emphasizes on fluency than on accuracy d 0% d Does not teach grammar What you think about motivating students to speak English? a 90% a Very important b 0% b Important c 0% c Not important Which ways of organization you usually in speaking activities? a Individual work a 20% b Pair work or group work b 80% Why you decide to have students work in pairs or groups? a To make the atmosphere more interesting a 60% b To give students a chance to exchange ideas with each other b 80% c To give shy students a chance to express themselves c 70% d To increase students‟ talking time d 30% e What kinds of tasks for speaking activities you often give your students? a 30% a Only speaking tasks in the textbooks b 70% b Speaking activities in Tieng Anh are mixed with games, role-play, etc Which level of difficulty of the tasks in speaking activities you often give your student? a Very difficult compared with their level of English a.10 % b Appropriate or a bit difficult compared with their level of b 60% English c 30% c Easy compared with their level of English (e.g: reading aloud a dialogue…) What kinds of topics for speaking activities you often give your students? a 90% a Only one topic for the whole class b.10% b Multi topics for the whole class to choose Do you often use visual aids in speaking activities? a 90% a Always b 10% b Sometimes c 0% c Rarely d 0% d Never 10 When your students make mistakes in speaking activities, you a Always correct their mistakes, even when they are speaking eagerly f a 30% b Only correct basic mistakes, at an appropriate time (e.g.: when b 64% they stop speaking) c 6% c Almost never correct their mistakes, letting them speak freely 11 How often you give praise or criticism to students ? a Only praise or criticise students basing on other performance a 60% b Frequently praise students regardless of their performances b 40% c Frequently criticise students c 0% 12 What are the common methods you often use in teaching speaking skill to 6th graders? (You can choose more than one option) a Grammar Translation Method (GTM) a 70% b Situational Language Teaching (SLT) b 20% c Direct Method (DM) c 44% d Audiolingual Method (ALM) d 44% e Community Language Learning (CLL) e 84% f Total Physical Response (TPR) f 70% g ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LE VIET THAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRACTICE OF TEACHING THE SPEAKING SKILL TO SIXTH GRADERS: A CASE STUDY OF VINH CITY Major: Teaching English to. .. than one which would actually help learners to use language, and an overt focus on grammar was to learn about the target language rather than to learn it As with many other methods and approaches,... roughly matching the traditional order of the grammar of Latin, and then to practice manipulating grammatical structures through the means of translation both into and from the mother tongue The method