Using information gap activities to improve efl 9th graders’ speaking ability

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY DANG THI THU HA USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE EFL 9TH GRADERS’ SPEAKING ABILITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) NGHE AN, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY DANG THI THU HA USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE EFL 9TH GRADERS’ SPEAKING ABILITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 8.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: ASSOC.PROF.DR NGO DINH PHUONG NGHE AN, 2019 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the M.A thesis submitted today entitled: Using information gap activities to improve EFL 9th graders’ speaking ability I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere Author Dang Thi Thu Ha i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have helped me make this thesis possible First, I would like to express my profound appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Doctor Ngo Dinh Phuong, who generously supports my work by giving directions, priceless advice and enthusiastic encouragement during the completion of the study I am also grateful to the Management Board, lecturers and staff members of Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Vinh University for their precious support and giving me a chance to carry out the study I am thankful to the head of Newstar English Centre for letting me to carry out the experiment with learners of secondary school I also highly appreciate the cooperation of my colleagues and Class 9A and Class 9A1 students at New Star Center in Vinh city I would like to express a million thanks to my family especially my parents and my husband, who have always supported and believed in me Their love is an inspiration for me to complete this thesis Finally, I realized that this thesis is still far from being perfect Therefore, any criticisms, ideas, and suggestions for the improvement of this thesis are highly appreciated ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to explore how information gap activities using influences EFL students‟ speaking ability To reach the goal, the researcher employed the quasi-experimental research Two groups were involved in the research, one was experimental group which received the treatment and the other was control group without the treatment To collect data, the researcher used instruments of questionnaires and the students‟ achievement in pre test and post test in order to support the data collected The result of the research showed that the speaking activities with information gap activities were effective in improving the speaking abilities for graders at Newstar center Information gap activities using can enhance the students to speak English The use of information gap activities was able to improve the students‟ speaking ability The students were more confident to speak in English Students‟ fluency and their accuracy also increased Furthermore, the students were actively engaged in the teaching learning process They were enthusiastic in doing the activities and their motivation also improved This can be seen from the improvement in the mean scores in pre-test and post-test The improvement was also seen based on the result from the students‟ responses that showed positive and good responses from the students after the implementation of information gap activities iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study 3 Scope of the study 4 Significance of the study Methods of the study Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking skill 2.1.1 The definition of speaking 2.1.2 The importance of speaking 2.1.3 Teaching speaking 10 2.1.4 Assessing speaking 15 2.2 Nature of Speaking Ability 18 2.2.1 Definition of Speaking Ability 18 2.2.2 Concept of Speaking Ability 19 2.2.3 The Elements of speaking Ability 20 2.3 Information Gap Activities 22 2.3.1 The Meaning of Gap 23 2.3.2 Types of Gap 23 iv 2.2.3 Types of Information 24 2.3.4 Types of Information Gap Activities 24 2.3.5 The Definition of Information Gap Activities 25 2.3.6 Teaching Procedure Using Information Gap Activities 26 2.3.7 The advantages of information gap activities 27 2.3.8 Speaking Activities Based on Information Gap Activities 30 2.3.9 Teaching Speaking Using Information Gap Activities 32 2.4 Relevant Research Studies 33 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 35 3.1 The Research Design 35 3.2 The Time and The Location of the Research 36 3.3 The Subject of the Research 36 3.4 The Object of the research 37 3.5 Research questions 37 3.6 Materials 37 3.7 Procedure 39 3.8 Data collection instruments 41 3.8.1 Questionnaire 41 3.8.2 Test 41 3.9 Data collection and analysis procedure 44 3.9.1 Data collection 44 3.9.2 Data analysis 45 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 47 4.1 Results 47 4.1.1 The Data Presentation of Pre-Test and Post-Test on Students „Ability in Speaking 49 4.1.2 The comparison of the scores on the pre-test and post-test on general English by participants from the experimental group and the control group 50 v 4.1.3 The data presentation of the pre-attitudinal survey questionnaire 55 4.1.4 Students‟ viewpoint towards the implementation of using Information Gap Activities in teaching speaking 65 4.1.5 Students‟ viewpoint in learning speaking with Information gap activities 66 4.2 Discussions 68 4.2.1 The Effect of Using Information Gap Activities toward Students‟ Speaking Ability before Using Information Gap and after Using it 68 4.2.2 Students‟ viewpoint toward the implementation of Information Gap Activities in teaching speaking 69 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 71 5.1 Summary of the main findings 71 5.2 Implications 72 5.3 Limitations 74 5.4 Suggestions for further research 75 REFERENCES 76 APPENDIX Error! Bookmark not defined vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS EFL : English as a Foreign Language IGA : Information Gap Activities N : Number Gr : Group % : Percentage vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Research Type 35 Table 3.2: Demographic information of participants 37 Table 3.3 The speaking topics of 12 units and speaking sections 38 Table 3.4 Scoring Rubric for speaking 42 Table 4.1 The Result of Pre - Test and Post Test of two groups 48 Table 4.2 The Statistics of Pre - Test and Post Test 49 Table 4.3 The comparison of the mean in Pre-test and Post- test of the two groups 50 Table 4.4 The proficiency of the two groups after the implementation 51 Table 4.5 The score alternations after the treatment by participants from the two groups 51 Table 4.6 The score distribution and the percentage of the two groups after the implementation 53 Table 4.7: Students‟ opinions towards the importance of learning speaking 55 Table 4.8: Students‟ excitement in learning speaking skill 56 Table 4.9: Students‟ self-evaluation towards students‟ speaking ability 57 Table 4.10 The frequency of using the mother tongue in speaking lessons 58 Table 4.11 Problems the students encountered in learning speaking skills 59 Table 4.12 Factors affect your speaking performance 61 Table 4.13 General understanding about the term “Information gap activities” 63 Tale 4.14 Students‟ stimulation in the type of task with Information Gap Activities 64 viii Bygate, M (1987), Language teaching: A scheme for teacher education, speaking, Oxford University Press Chaney, A L., and T L Burk 1998 Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8 Boston: Allyn & Bacon Harmer, J (2007) How to Teach English Edinburg: Person Education Limited Harmer, J (2009) The Practice of English language Teaching, Amerika Longman Press Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching (Third Edition ed.) London: Pearson Education Limited Heaton,J B (1995) LanguageTesting.Amerika Longman Group Huong, N.T (2013) The effectiveness of using information gap activities to promote grade 10 students’ participation in speaking lessons at Nguyen Dang Dao high school, Bac ninh province (Unpublished MA thesis), Vietnam National University Hornby Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionay of Current English (Oxford University Press, 1955) p 1331 Kayi, Hayriye 2006 Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking In a Second Languag (The Internet TESL Journal, Vol.XII, No.11) Retrieved on Feb 2011 http://iteslj-org/Articles/Kayi-Teaching Speakng.html Lazaraton, A (2001) Teaching Oral Skills In M Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed., pp.103– 115) Littlewood, W (1994) Communicative activities Cambridge Cambridge University Press 77 Nunan,D (2003).Practical English Language Teaching Singapore: Mc Graw Hill Contemporary Nunan,D & Linse, C (1992) Research Methods in Language Learning NewYork Universityof Cammbridge Press Ngan, C T.(2013) The application of commucative activities in English speaking classes of grade 11th students at Cao lanh city high school (Unpublished MA thesis), Dong Thap University Richards, J.C 2008 Teaching Listening and Speaking From Theory to Practice Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006 Communicative Language Teaching Today Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ,and Renandya, W A 2002 Methodology in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams (1989) Speaking: from Interaction to Articulation Cambridge Mass, Mass: MIT Press Sugiarti, Desi 2011 Using Information-Gap Activities to Improve the English Speaking Skills of XI KR Students at SMK Negeri Yogyakarta in the Academic Year of 2013/2014 A Thesis Yogyakarta: A Thesis Yogyakarta: English Education Study Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Yogyakarta State University Thornbury, S 2005 How to Teach Speaking London: Longman Underwood, M (1996) Teaching Listening New York: Longman, Inc Ur, P (1991) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wang, Ur, P (1996) A course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ur, Penny, Hellen Lee (1996) Simple Audio visual aids to Foreign Language 78 Zhang,S (1009) The role of input, interaction, and out put in the development of oral fluency English language Teaching,2 (4), 91-100 Website https://www.slideshare.net/uroojshafqat/experimental-research-11401013 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n2p110 79 APPENDIX A STUDENTS’ PRE- QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire is designed to find out your opinion about the importance of speaking skill, your interest and your self-evaluation about your speaking competence and what problems you encounter and what factors affect your speaking performance Moreover, The survey questionnaire investigates how much you know about Information Gap Activities and what activities of Information Gap you have more interest in Please put a tick (x) in the box beside the option(s) you choose Part I: Demographic information Gender:  Female  Male Age:  Under 13  14- 17  17-20 How long have you been learning English?  Under year  2-4 years  5- years  More than years Part II: Factors affecting students’ speaking performance and speaking What you think about the importance of teaching speaking skill at grade 9th ? A Very important B Important C Not very important How much are you fond of speaking activities? A Very much B Not very much D Not at all What you think about your speaking competence? A Poor B Average C Good D Excellent Do you use the mother tongue in speaking lessons? A rarely B sometimes C often D always What are your problems of peaking competence? (You can have more than one choice) I make mistakes in my pronunciation  I make mistakes in grammar when speaking  I speak with pauses and hesitations  I cannot remember some vocabulary when speaking  I speak with pauses and hesitations  I use substitution words for those that I not know  I ask for repetition/clarification when communicating with others  I worry about making mistakes when talking in English  I am misunderstood by my listeners  What factors influence your speaking performance? (You can have more than one choice) Time for preparation  Pressure to perform well  Motivation to speak  Anxiety  Topical knowledge  Other factors (please specify)………………………………………… To what extent you know about the term “Informaton Gap activities”? A Information gap activities are useful activities in which one person has information that the other lacks They must use the target language to share the information B Information gap refers to the fact that in real communication, people normally communicate in order to get information they not possess C Both of them D No idea What types of speaking tasks you enjoy taking part in? (You can have more than one choice) Information missing  Jigsaw  Picture prompts  Problem solving  Finding pictures‟ differences  Giving directions  Media  APPENDIX B STUDENTS’ POST-QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed to get students’ responses to the implementation of information gap activities in teaching speaking” Please answer the following questions by putting an “X” in the box of the appropriate choice Your answer is used for research purposes only Questions In my opinion, information gap activities is an interesting one and I love this one After doing information gap activities activities, I feel more confident when speaking English I speak more English than Vietnamese in speaking periods with information gap activities Speaking activities seemed to be easier with information gap Activities with information gap could increase my talking time Information gap activities help me improve my speaking fluency Information gap activities enhance my speaking accuracy in terms of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary Information gap activities helped orient what to ask and answer about the topic given Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree APPENDIX C The score of pre-test and the post-test on on students’ speaking ability by the treatment group Pre-test T1 Experimental group E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 E12 E13 E14 E15 E16 E17 E18 E19 E20 E21 E22 E23 E24 E25 E26 E27 E28 5.5 7.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5 6 5.5 6.5 5.5 8.5 7.5 Post-test T2 7 8.5 6.5 8.5 7.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 7 6.5 6.5 5.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 6.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 8.5 The score of pre-test and the post-test on on students’ speaking ability by the control group Control group C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 Pre-test T1 5.5 6 6 7 6.5 6.5 4.5 5.5 5.5 6.5 6 6.5 Post-test T2 5.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 7.5 7.5 6.5 7 6.5 7.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 7 4.5 APPENDIX D PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST Part I: Introduction and interview What is your dream job you would like to in the future? Why?  Greetings  What kind of jobs you want to have ?  Why you want this kind of job?  How much salary can you get from this job ?  Do you think this kind of job is eay to do? Why? Why not?  What jobs you think are the most popular now?  What are the three most important qualities a person needs to be able to a job well?  Greetings  What kind of jobs you want to have ?  Why you want this kind of job?  How much salary can you get from this job ?  Do you think this kind of job is eay to do? Why? Why not?  What jobs you think will be the most popular in the next 10 years?  What you think is the most important quality a person needs to be able to a job well? Why? Part 2: Gap filling information Example 2: Unit 12-My future career Missing information: Each student is given a prompt material with some gaps missing information that the others in the class have Students work in pair to ask for the information they need to fill in their cards The aim is to encourage Ss to ask and answer accurately with their missing information and speak fluently Here are teacher’s instructions The teacher introduces the activity as follow: Teacher: (Pablo), here is some information about a job in an international hospital (teacher shows answer card 2A to Pablo) (Laura), you don‟t know anything about a job in an international hospital, so ask (Pablo) some question about it (teacher shows answer card 2B to Laura) Use these words to help you (Teacher indicates prompt words) Do you understand? Now, (Laura), ask (Pablo) your questions about the job, and (Pablo), you answer them Job in an international hospital  What/job?  Hours/ a day  Where?  Interest?  Abilities?  Personal traits? Join in our worker staff VIET DUC HOSPITAL We need a nurse who can handle matters Like caring for others Making a different in people‟s life You must be strong, calm, patient, caring Minimum hours a day When the students have asked and answered, they exchange role and talk about different topics Students are assessed on both their questions and answers Part 3: Follow-up Discussion Who you think will help you along the path ? (think about who can give you good advice and why?) APPENDIX E Example 3: Unit 8- Tourism Missing information: Each student is given a prompt material with some gaps missing information that the others in the class have Students have to move around the class to ask for the information they need to fill in their cards The ones finish first are rewarded The aim is to encourage Ss to answer accurately with their missing information and speak fluently and accurately Instruction: Work in group of five (or six) You’ve informed from the card three things a friend in your group would like to most But you don’t know what things the rests of your group would like to most on holiday Ask the questions to find out information The aim is to have Ss ask as many questions as possible Tell them that they may ask questions about activities their friends or places they would like to go Student E Things List Explore Son Dong cave A Names B C D ν ν ν Clim the great Wall of China ν Visit the Pyramids of Egypts ν Relax on a beach ν Go camping in Cuc Phuong national park Take an adventure tour to Mount Everest ν Take a sightseeing tour around New York ν Take a Trans-Viet cycling tour ν ν ν ν Student A Names Things List B C D Explore Son Dong cave ν Clim the great Wall of China Visit the Pyramids of Egypts ν Relax on a beach Go camping in Cuc Phuong national park ν Take an adventure tour to Mount Everest Take a sightseeing tour around New York Take a Trans-Viet cycling tour Student B Things List Names A B C D Explore Son Dong cave Clim the great Wall of China ν Visit the Pyramids of Egypts Relax on a beach Go camping in Cuc Phuong national park ν Take an adventure tour to Mount Everest Take a sightseeing tour around New York Take a Trans-Viet cycling tour ν Example 2: Unit 11- Changing roles in society From the text from the textbook, researcher adapts it to suit with information gap activities Instruction: Divide the class into groups One group names a service and what they think the service will be like in the future and the other group performs the same task but different information They miss the information Work with each other to find out the full name of services and the vision of their future Try to give every student ago, not just the advanced ones in the class Take turn to this The group with the most prediction wins Group A Name of service The vision of The service’s future Train Become barren People Operation will be performed by robots Housework Will be running on solar energy Group B Name of service The vision of The service’s future Robot will Land Talk with their pets Hospital Lives in house in the sky Car ... of Using Information Gap Activities toward Students‟ Speaking Ability before Using Information Gap and after Using it 68 4.2.2 Students‟ viewpoint toward the implementation of Information Gap. .. Ability and Information gap activities using as well involving in the definition of Information gap activities, advantages of using Information gap activities, and speaking activities based on Information. .. related to the Information gap Activities using as well as all genres of learning The research only focuses on the implementation of the Information gap Activities using to teach speaking to 9th