CHAPTER II: THE STUDY ON USING COMMUNICATIVE
2.5.2. Results from class observation and teachers’ questionnaire
The first two questions related to teachers’ opinion about speaking skills.
Question Answer
A B C D E
1 100% 0 0 0 0
2 80% 20% X X X
3 20% 50% 30% 0% 0%
Asked about their thought of speaking skills, it is interesting that all of the teachers were aware of the importance of speaking skill in acquiring a language (100%).
In spite of the importance of the speaking skills, only two teachers (20%) were confident to answer that she found it was not difficult for them to teach this skill. Yet, 8 teachers left (80%) claimed that it was really a problem for them to teach this skill successfully.
Teachers’ perception about the use of communicative activities in teaching speaking skills
In order to discover teachers’ perception about the importance of communicative activities, some questions were raised about this issue.
Fortunately, many teachers have positive attitudes toward the importance of the use of communicative activities to teach speaking skills.
Question Answer
A B C D E
4 60% 40% 0% 0% 0%
5 100% 0% X X X
6 90% 10% X X X
Most of them have realized the importance of communicative activities in teaching speaking skills. 60% of teachers believed that they were very important because they helped students develop communicative competence whereas 40% showed their agreement with the idea that communicative activities were important in teaching speaking skills. There is no one claimed that communicative activities were not very important. This reflects teacher’s awareness of using s in their lessons.
Almost all of the teachers have paid their attention to the use of communicative activities. And in reality all of the teachers stated that they did adapt and use communicative activities when they taught speaking skills.
Nine teachers (90%) confirmed that communicative activities were often adapted and used in their lesson, while just one of them supposed that they were sometimes used.
These results are the same as the results observed in classes. All of the teachers apply at least one activity in each lesson and more flexibly.
Teachers’ sources of communicative activities used in speaking lessons The next questions focus on teachers’ experience in adapting communicative activities to their lesson.
Answers %
A, The activities in the Effortless English system 100
B, The activities you design yourself 80
C, The activities in the reference books 30
D, The activities you collect from colleagues 60
F, Combining the above sources 100
The findings show that all teachers (100%) believed that the activities in Effortless English system are communicative. Moreover, they still used other sources in designing the lessons. 100% of teachers answered that they had to combine many sources. It is also noteworthy that 80% of teachers usually adapt the activities to suit their students’ level and lesson contents. In addition, 30% of teachers collected appropriate activities from the reference books. Experiences from other colleagues were also useful for 6 of teachers investigated.
In terms of the content of communicative activities, 100% of teachers showed their agreement that the content of communicative activities in their speaking lessons is related to the lesson.
From the observation data, it can be concluded that teachers paid much attention to the content of communicative activities used in classes. Generally, some activities such as warm-up activities, discussion can be linked to the topic of the speaking lessons.
Teachers’ perception towards the aims of communicative activities Question 8 was designed to draw out the teacher’s notion about aims of communicative activities.
Aims of communicative activities %
To encourage students to speak target language 80
To stimulate the students’ motivation 70
To have students get out of shyness 60
To meet the demand of students’ communicative purposes 70
All the above mentioned reasons 70
Other reasons 0
As shown in above, the data provide evidence that most of the teachers were really aware of the communicative activity purposes which was a good sign for students.
Teachers’ feedbacks on the lessons without communicative activities The question about the success of English language speaking lessons was raised in order to find out teachers’ assessments in terms of communicative activities.
Teachers’ Opinions %
Less successful 100
As successful as periods with communicative activities 0
More successful 0
No ideas 0
The findings reveal that many teachers were conscious of the importance of communicative activities. This reflects in the data that 100% of teachers believed that if no communicative activities were employed in teaching speaking, their lessons would be less successful.
Teachers’ favorite communicative activities
In regard of the use of communicative activities in speaking classes, question 10 and 11 were given in order to discover teachers’ favorite ones and which are suitable for their students.
Question Answer
A B C D E F G H I
10 60% 40% 20% 30% 70% 60% 40% 10% 0%
11 60% 30% 40% 40% 30% 70% 50% 90% X
Among the mentioned activities, brainstorming took the highest choice with 70%. Games and role-play, were the second favorite activities with 60%
for both. The two types having the same percentage (40%) were discussion and Group work. The less ones were interview and information gap with 30%
and 20% ideas from the teachers. The least common activity is matching with just one teacher used.
As can be seen from the table matching is an easy activity for elementary students with 90% teachers agreed that students can do this task easily. The next suitable ones are games, role-play and group work with 70%, 60% and 50% of teachers choose respectively. Others activities left are quite hart for students especially discussion and brainstorming with three choose of the teachers.
It’s easy to realize from class observation, brainstorming, games and role-play are often used because they are interesting and also help students to participate more to the lesson. Besides, matchingis easy but cannot attract students’ attention while brainstorming and discussion are still hard for elementary students.
Teacher informants’ opinion ways to promote communicative activities Question 12 was raised to survey some methods to promote communicative activities.
Ways to promote communicative activities %
Make good preparation 80
Encourage students 70
Discuss and share the experience with colleagues 60
Organize the class work appropriately 50
Other things 0
It is obvious that to have a good lesson, teachers need much time, energy as well as their creativity. That is the reason why 80% of teacher stated that good preparation could promote communicative activities.
According to 70% of teachers, in order to get effectiveness of communicative activities teacher should encourage their students in learning process. 60% of teachers believed that discussing and sharing experience with other colleagues
could work while only 50% thought that communicative activities could take their advantages when they organized class work appropriately.
Difficulties the teachers encounter when conducting communicative activities in teaching speaking skills
The last question aims at clarify some difficulty the teachers encounter when conducting communicative activities in teaching speaking skills.
Difficulties %
Limitation of time to prepare 40
Limitation of time to apply in classroom 30
Class size is not suitable to use the communicative activities 40 Students lack of knowledge of English to express themselves 70
Students are passive and shy 60
Lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids 30 The collected results revealed that a big proportion (60%) of teachers blamed for students’ lack of English knowledge. The next obstacle came from students’ personal characteristics. 60% of teachers complained that their students were timid and passive in classroom. As a result, they were not really connected to the lessons. In addition, 40% admitted that the class size made them confuse to organize the activities. Meanwhile, it was reported by 40% of teachers that communicative activities required them extra time off class to re-design and adapt to their students competence and interest. One more problem was time allocation for performing tasks (30%) which made teachers face difficulties in controlling the class activities. Poor teaching equipment also are a factor effecting teaching and learning quality with 30% agreement from teachers.