The effects of modified speaking activities in speaking sections of the new textbook english 10 on students motivaion in speaking lessons an action research at luong the vinh high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY NGUYEN DUC DAO THE EFFECTS OF MODIFIED SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING SECTIONS OF THE NEW TEXTBOOKENGLISH 10 ON STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT LUONG THE VINH HIGH SCHOOL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN TH I NHU HOA, M.A I Ianoi, August 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS i ACKKNOWLEGDEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES .vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 MOTIVATION IN LEARNING 2.1.1 Definition o f motivation 2.1.2 Role o f motivation in language learning 2.1.3 Types o f motivation 2.1.4 Motivating students to engage in classroom activities 2.1.5 Factors affecting motivation 10 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF SPEAKING .11 2.2.1 Speaking, a skill in learning a foreign language .11 2.2.2 Teaching speaking 12 2.2.3 Speaking activities 15 2.3 MATERIAL ADAPTATION 17 2.3.1 Definition o f material adaptation? 18 2.3.2 Reasons for adapting materials 18 2.3.3 Principles o f adapting materials 19 2.3.4 Techniques o f adapting materials 20 2.4 PREVIOUS STUDIES 22 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 RESEARCH METHOD OF THE STUDY 24 3.1.1 An overview o f action research 24 3.1.2 Action research models 25 3.1.3 Action research cycle and procedure for this study .25 3.2 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 28 3.2.1 Survey questionnaire 28 3.2.2 Classroom ohservaUon 31 l 3.2.3 Teaching diary 33 3.2.4 Textbook analysis 34 3.3 PARTICIPANTS 35 3.3.1 The teacher researcher 35 3.3.2 The non- participate observers 35 3.3.3 The students .36 3.4 SUMMARY 36 CHAPTER 4: THE RESULTS 37 4.1 INITIAL DATA 37 4.1.1 Students on-task behaviour 37 4.1.2 Overall class motivation 38 4.1.3 Students ’ opinions about speaking lessons and speaking activities in English 10 39 4.1.4 Students ’preferences for speaking activities 40 4.1.5 The result o f document analysis 41 4.2 PLANNING ACTION STEPS .47 4.2.1 Adding 48 4.2.2 Deleting or omitting 49 4.2.3 Simplifying 49 4.2.4 Replacing 50 4.3 DATA COLLECTED IN THE ACTION STAGE 50 4.3.1 Students’ on- task behaviour 50 4.3.2 Overall class motivation 52 4.3.3 Students ’ self- reported motivation 53 4.3.4 Effectiveness and problems of modified activities as perceived by the teacher 55 4.4 ACTION RESEARCH EVALUATION 56 4.4.1 Students ’ on-task behaviour before and after the action plan 56 4.4.2 Overall class motivation before and after the action plan .57 4.4.3 Summary o f major findings and discussion 58 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATIONS 62 5.1 A SUMMARY OF THE ACTION RESEARCH 62 5.2 RECOMMENDATION 63 5.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 64 REFERENCES .65 APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 69 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 73 APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION SHEET 77 APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SHEET 79 APPENDIX 5: TEACHING DIARY 80 APPENDIX 6: LESSON PLAN 81 APPENDIX 7: LESSON PLAN 10 .85 APPENDIX 8: LESSON PLAN 14 89 APPENDIX 9: ORIGINAL SPEAKING LESSON 10 97 APPENDIX 10: DIAGRAM 98 in ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Mrs Nguyen Thi Nhu Hoa, M.A, who provided me with her precious, valuable ideas, knowledge, assistance, consideration and encouragement Without these, the thesis could not have been completed I would like to express my great gratitude to Mrs Nguyen Thai Ha, M.A for her enthusiasm, great support with valuable ideas, suggestions and comments on the research approaches and constant encouragement during the research period My special thanks are expressed to the support and encouragement o f Dr Vu Van Dai, the Head o f Department of Postgraduate Studies, other staff members o f the Postgraduate Department, Hanoi University and all of the lecturers who taught and helped me during M.A course In addition, my great attitude and thanks go to my colleagues and my students at LHS taking part in my research and my friends who offered me great help with statistical data collection and analysis I am thankful to my wife and little son for sharing me from all domestic responsibilities for the completion of this postgraduate degree and this thesis Finally and above all, I am deeply grateful to my parents who have always sacrificed their today for our tomorrow and prayed for my success A B ST R A C T This research aims to find out: (1) What causes the students’ low motivation in the speaking lessons at LHS? (2) Can the modified speaking activities help increase the students' motivation in the speaking lessons? To find out the answers to these questions, an action research was carried out The subjects of the study were thirty students from class 10 A o f Luong The Vinh high school The action research lasted for 18 weeks in which the original activities and the modified speaking activities were used in the different periods Observations, questionnaires, teaching diary, and textbook analysis were used as main instruments to collect the data in this study The results collected from analyzing initial data confirmed that the students’ motivation in speaking lessons was low and it was revealed that the main cause for the students’ motivation was the unsuitability of the original speaking activities in English 10 for the students In order to solve the causes o f the problem, the hypothesis o f the study was formed: The modified speaking activities could help increase the students' motivation in the speaking An action plan was carried out by modifying the original speaking activities in the textbook and implemented in the six speaking lessons To solve the problem and increase students’ motivation in speaking lessons, an action plan was carried out by modifying the original speaking activities in the textbook and then these activities were implemented in the six speaking lessons The modifying of the original speaking activities was based on the principles and techniques for adapting They include replacing the inappropriate and impractical activities for the students’ daily speech in each specified lesson, adding vocabulary, ideas, structures and guidance on pronunciation, deleting some parts of long activities to the given time and simplifying the instructions or structures of some activities Statistical analysis results reported that the modified speaking activities were successful in helping increase the students’ motivation in speaking lessons in terms of interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class; persistence with the learning task; and levels of concentration and enjoyment Based on the findings of the study, some discussion and limitations were made along with recommended suggestions for further study It is hoped that the findings and suggestions in this research will help teachers use English textbook 10 as well as other textbooks more effectively in order to improve students’ motivation in speaking lessons and other lessons LIST O F G R A P H S A N D T A B L E S T a b l e l : S t u d e n t s ' o n -t a s k T a b l e 2: O v e r a l l c l a s s m o t iv a t io n b e f o r e t h e a c t io n p l a n 39 T a b l e 3: S p e a k in g a c t iv it y a n a l y s is in T a b l e 4: S t u d e n t s ’ o n - t a s k T a b l e 5: O v e r a l l E n g l is h textbook 43 b e h a v io u r a f t e r t h e a c t io n p l a n 51 c l a s s m o t iv a t io n a f t e r t h e a c t io n p l a n 53 T a b l e 6: S t u d e n t s ’ s e l f - r e p o r t e d m o t iv a t io n a f t e r t h e a c t io n p l a n G r a p h l : S t u d e n t s ’ o n -t a s k G r a p h 2: O v e r a l l b e h a v i o u r b e f o r e t h e a c t io n p l a n 38 54 b e h a v i o u r 57 c l a s s m o t i v a t i o n 58 C H A P T E R I: IN T R O D U C T IO N The study begins with this introductory chapter It describes the background to the study and statement of the problem, indicates the aims and objectives of this study, states the scope and significance of the study and presents the organization of the study 1.1 Background to the study and statement of the problem Luong The Vinh High School is a small one, located in Phu Ly Town, Ha Nam province It was established only 10 years ago with 18 classes o f three different grades (10, 11 and 12) and over 40 teachers All students here come from many different parts of Phu Ly and nearby districts Although all o f them have learnt English at secondary schools for years, their levels o f English are very limited, especially speaking skill Like other high schools in Vietnam, English is considered one of the most important subjects, and is a compulsory subject in the National Final Examination at LHS Students have to learn three periods o f English every week and the textbooks which are being used are the series o f the brand new English textbooks developed from a topicbased syllabus by a group of authors: Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong and Nguyen Quoc Tuan Each book in the series follows two current approaches the learner-centered approach and communicative language teaching It consists of the units combining four skills with grammatical structures and language functions introduced in meaningful contexts All of the units are designed to aim at encouraging students to learn not only grammar structures but also all four-language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing The teaching of all four-language skills is equally important The textbook- English 10 is the first one for students at high school and has officially been used at all high schools in Vietnam since the school year 2006 - 2007 The sixteenunit book is designed to be covered in about 90 periods of classroom instruction for all grade-10 students in Vietnam As stated by its authors, all the activities in this book, especially in the speaking sections are designed to help students improve their communicative competence The speaking sections consisting of 16 lessons are presented and focused on speaking skills in a wide range o f practical functions as well as in a variety of tasks based on real-life situations They also provide freer practice of new language items in context A speaking lesson usually includes three or four tasks According to Harmer (1991), theses tasks are communicative activities such as discussions, simulation and role-play, reaching a consensus, or talking about yourself The aim o f two task one or task two is often to provide students with linguistic elements and develop competences or specific functions The following tasks (task three of task four), as stated before, aim to enable students to practice speaking in controlled practice and freer situations to make a similar real dialogues/ conversations, using the linguistic elements provided in the previous tasks However, the matter concerned is how to motivate the students in lessons in general and in speaking lessons in particular when using this textbook to improve their speaking ability as its authors’ expectation Theoretically, motivation is interest in and enthusiasm, persistence with the learning task, as indicated by levels o f attention or action for an extended duration; and levels o f concentration and enjoyment (Crookes and Schmidt, 1991) Students’ motivation in speaking classes refers to the students’ interest in class activities, participating in activities enthusiastically; persistence with the learning tasks and students’ high levels o f concentration and enjoyment If the definition o f motivation mentioned above is used, then a successful speaking lesson should be the one where all students are willing to take chance to initiate conversations, to be as positively active as possible Moreover, according to Ur (1996), a successful speaking activity should acquire the following characteristics: learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high, and language is of an acceptable level However, this was not the case in LHS at all, no matter how hard the teachers have tried there In reality, at LHS, after one year’s using this textbook, it is not difficult to realize that the quality of speaking lessons seems not to be much improved as expected despite the good teaching conditions and teachers’ attempts here The problem that the researcher as well as most other teachers of English faced in the first weeks o f the school year 2007- 2008 was how to sustain students’ genuine interest in lessons in general and speaking lessons in particular As observed in the researcher’s class, the speaking lessons seemed to be boring, the students were quiet; 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