20%
30%
37%
13%
a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. No idea d. Don't agree
As can be seen from the chart, 30% of the sample agreed that they could learn many structures and vocabulary from picture stories. However, only 20% respondents strongly agreed with the assumption. A great number of students (37%) had no idea on the statement. They were not sure that they could learn new structures and new words from the stories. The rest 13% claimed that they did not learn structures and vocabulary from the stories. The implication of the results is that many students concentrate on the content rather than on the structure or the language of the stories. It is the fact that picture stories often have simple plot and easily-guessed content.
Therefore, students can keep reading the whole story in original English literary text without being stuck by new words and structures. This has good effect on students‘
emotion because it makes them feel satisfied, and increases their motivation.
However, expressions and words in the picture stories are often closely to life, and they are also useful for learners. Therefore, teachers should enrich their students‘
language knowledge with picture stories by drawing students‘ attention to new
structures and vocabulary in the stories. They may have their students practised structures, and expressions through drama.
From the above analyses, we can see that adolescent students have positive attitude to the use of picture stories in speaking class. Most of them like reading picture stories and find speaking lessons using this material type interesting.
Vocabulary used in the stories can be inferred from both pictures and the context, and the sentence structures are simple so the pupils can understand the content easily.
This reduces students‘ anxiety and motivates them to participate actively in the lessons.
4.2. Students’ involvement in the class
4.2.1. Students’ confidence in class using picture stories
Chart 5: Students' confidence
33%
46%
11%
10%
a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Neutral d. Don't agree
Chart 5 shows the levels of students‘ confidence in speaking class using picture stories. Approximately 33% of students said that they were very confident in the class.
46% students felt confident to take part in the lessons. 11% of the respondents felt as usual, and 10% were unconfident in the class.
4.2.2. The atmosphere in speaking classes using picture stories
Chart 6: The classroom atmosphere
42%
51%
6% 1%
a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Neutral d. Don't agree
As can be seen from the chart, the majority of the students (42%) thought that they felt very comfortable in the class using picture stories. Another number (51%) also reported that they were comfortable. Only 6% believed that the class was as usual. And 1% felt stressed and uneasy in the speaking lessons. In general, in the context of the study, picture stories were very successful in building a comfortable atmosphere for the class. In such a safe classroom environment, learners‘ motivation will reach its peak. As a result, students‘ involvement will be increased much.
4.2.3. Students’ involvement in activities exploited from picture stories
Chart 7: Students' participation in activities
51%
27%
22%
a.Yes b. Neutral c. No
The findings show that over a half of the sample (51%) took part in speaking activities using picture stories actively. 22% acted as in normal lessons. And 22% did not involve actively in the class. Thus, as the above analysis, good attitudes toward the use of picture stories really enhanced students‘ motivation and increased their involvement in the activities in the class.
4.2.4. Favorite topics
95.2
66.3
38.6
24.1
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0
a. fairy tales, science fiction
b. Adventure c. Daily life d. Others
Chart 8
According to the chart, fairy tales and science fictions are the most favorite themes, accounted for 95% vote. 66.3% choices were for adventure stories. 30.6%
respondents liked topics about daily life. And 24.1% enjoyed stories of other topics.
Other topics as students listed in the survey were history, school, and friendship.
This is the basis for teachers to choose suitable stories for their students.
4.2.5. Favorite activities in speaking class using picture stories
Activity The appropriate number students rank activities according to their interests
1 (percentage
of respondents)
2 (percentage
of respondents)
3 (percentage
of respondents)
4 (percentage
of respondents)
a. Discussing 6.0% 2.4% 24.1% 67.5%
b. Drama 42.2% 39.8% 9.6% 8.4%
c. Creating stories for a series of pictures
39.8% 32.5% 27.7% 0.0%
d. Retelling 12.0% 25.3% 38.6% 24.1%
Table 2: Students‘ rank on the activities in accordance to their interest
Table 2 revealed that among activities, 42% students liked drama most. The explanation for this could be that drama activities are often funny. They bring students together and create the comfortable atmosphere in the classroom. As a result, students‘
self-confidence is also strengthened. In addition, when students act the drama, they can use what they are learning with pragmatic intent, something that is most difficult to learn through explanation. In other words, drama simulates reality and develops self expression.
Besides, students were also interested in making stories for given picture series.
Approximately 40% students liked this creative activity most. Participating in creating stories gives learners an opportunity to develop their imagination and their creativity.
This is a good chance for students to freely produce their own work. Humorous and free features of this activity help students less anxious and stressful about the lesson.
However, not many students were fond of discussing and retelling activities. These activities, especially discussion, have high requirement on vocabulary, grammar structures, and language competence. Students, especially low level students, often do not
know how to express their ideas in English. Thus these activities may make students depressed when they fail presenting their ideas.
In summary, findings from the survey showed the advantages of picture stories in speaking class. They help students feel more self-confident, make the class atmosphere more comfortable, and increase students‘ active participation. Adolescent students tend to be interested in fairy tales or science fiction, so teachers should choose suitable stories to attract students the most. Activities based on picture stories such as drama, and creating stories are favored most by students.
4.3. Students’ difficulties in speaking lessons using picture stories.
As it was clearly illustrated in the chart, the most challenged task for the students in speaking class is retelling the story. Approximately 54% students claimed that they could not retell the stories though they enjoyed and understood the stories. 39% students said that they were embarrassed when they had to make stories for the given picture series. Though they were interested in this activity as stated in question No. 9, it was sometimes not very easy for them to fulfill the task. 16% respondents reported that they
Chart 9: Students' difficulties in speaking lessons
15.7
54.2
38.6
18.1 0.0
10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0
a. Can’t understand the
stories
b. Can’t retell the stories
c. Can’t make stories for comic
trips
d. Others
met difficulty to understand the stories. And 18.1% stated other difficulties. For example, some students claimed that his/her other partner did not want to involve in the activities when they had role-play tasks; Some other students did not believe that stories could improve their English because it did not relate to exams. A small number of respondents (2) said that they could not follow their classmates.
To ensure the benefits of using picture stories in speaking class, teachers should be aware of their students‘ difficulties to help them overcome. The tasks should be designed to be suitable to students‘ level. And weaker students should be given more attention from teachers to catch up with others.
4.4.Teachers’ evaluation on the effectiveness of picture stories in speaking lessons.
The majority of teachers (70%) usually used picture stories in their speaking lessons. Not any teachers have never used this type of material in the class. However, teachers used picture stories for different purposes.
Chart 10: Teachers' information on the frequency of using picture stories
70%
30%
0%
a. Usually b. Sometimes c. Never
20 20
50
10 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
a. Relaxing only b. Teaching only c. Relaxing and teaching
d. Time covering
Chart 11: Teachers' purposes of using picture stories
Half of the respondents used picture stories for both relaxing and teaching purposes. The number of teachers used picture books for one separate purpose as relaxing or teaching only is small and equal at 20%. Only 10% teachers used stories to cover the time.
For the question ―Do your students like the usage of picture stories in the class?‖
teachers were asked to observe their students, and then give remarks on students‘ feeling toward picture stories used in speaking class.
60% of the respondents reported that their students liked picture stories very much. 40% said that the students liked the application but sometimes they got bored. Not any teachers thought their students did not care about or dislike the use of picture stories.
With these findings, the assumption that adolescent pupils like picture stories is once again confirmed. This also stresses the effectiveness of picture stories on pupils‘ intrinsic motivation. Because students learn for their interest, they will learn with their best effort.
The explanation for the fact that students sometimes got bored with the use of picture stories could be unsuitable stories and tasks, or students‘ bad state of health and psychology. In this case, teachers should determine the cause and then have proper changes.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
a. Yes. They like very much
b. Yes. But sometimes they get bored
c. No. They don't care
d. No. They don't like
Chart 12: Teachers' remarks on students' attitudes toward the use of picture stories
Table 3: Teachers‘ rank on the activities according to their students‘ interest
The above table presents teachers‘ rank of their students‘ interest levels for activities based on picture stories. The findings are quite similar to relevant results from questionnaires for students. Drama was still considered as the most favorable activity for students as 50% teachers‘ observation. The next choice was for creating stories for picture series. Discussing was not chosen as a good activity in speaking lessons using picture stories. From the above findings, we can see that teachers understood their students‘ interests well. This is a crucial factor for teachers to teach successfully.
Teachers can develop favorable tasks more to draw their students‘ participation. On the other hand, they have appropriate modification to unfavorable activities to make classroom activities more various.
Success of any teaching and learning processes depends on both teachers and learners. Suppose that teachers do not perceive the benefits of picture stories usage, the use of this teaching material type will not be promoted though students like picture stories. Therefore, in the questionnaire for teachers, the researcher investigated teachers‘
ideas on the advantage of picture stories usage in speaking class.
Activity
The appropriate number teachers rank activities according to their students‘ interest
1 (percentage
of respondents)
2 (percentage
of respondents)
3 (percentage
of respondents)
4 (percentage
of respondents)
a. Discussing 0 % 0 % 30 % 70 %
b. Drama 50% 40% 10% 0 %
c. Creating stories for a series of pictures
40 % 30 % 30 % 0 %
d. Retelling 10 % 30 % 30 % 30 %
As can be seen from the chart, surprisingly all the teachers (100%) agreed with the assumption that picture stories could motivate students and make classroom atmosphere less stress. 70% of the respondents said that illustrated stories could encourage co-operation through group work. And 30% thought that this type of material could improve students‘ fluency. From the results, we can see that the teachers all knew the good points of picture stories well. This will promote them to apply the material to get the best success. Teachers were then asked to evaluate the effectiveness of using picture stories in their speaking class. The findings are as follows:
Question 6
Answer Percentage
a. Very effective 30%
b. Effective 60%
c. Not sure 10%
d. Ineffective 0%
e. Counter-effective 0%
Table 4: Teachers‘ evaluation on the effectiveness of picture stories
Chart 13: Teachers' ideas on the advantages of the usage of picture stories
100 100
70
30 0
20 40 60 80 100 120
a. Motivate students b. Make classroom atmosphere less
stress.
c. Encourage co- operation through
group work
d. Improve students' fluency
According to the findings, most of the teachers believed that the use of picture stories were effective, and even very effective. Only 10% of the informants were ―not sure‖ about the effectiveness of the stories. No student regards picture stories either
―ineffective‖ or ―counter-effective‖.
In general, results from questionnaire for teachers are very positive. All teachers in the survey highly evaluated the use of picture stories in speaking lessons. They all understood the benefits of pictures stories and knew trends to modify the tasks based on the material in order to suit their learners. This has a great effect on the success of the lessons.
4.5.Difficulties in teaching English using picture stories
Though picture stories bring many advantages to English teaching and learning process, they impose some challenges upon teachers.
All the teachers complained that they had difficulties in choosing suitable stories though there had a collection of picture stories gathered by teachers of English section.
All of them also said that using picture stories was difficult because of different levels of students. These two obstacles seemed to relate to each other. The differences in students‘
Chart 14: Teachers' difficulties in applying picture stories
60 40
100 100
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
a. Large class b. Time consuming c. Different levels d. Difficulties in choosing suitable stories
English levels caused difficulties for teachers not only in choosing suitable materials, but also in designing appropriate tasks. Simple materials and easy tasks may suit students at low levels, but they make students of higher competence bored. Conversely, appropriate materials and tasks for high – level students will be too hard for low-level students.
Moreover, to choose a good picture story for the class, teachers should take into their consideration many factors such as students‘ preference, time allowance, class size, etc.
Besides, 40% teachers thought that the use of picture stories in speaking lessons was very time consuming. Large class was also a problem for 60% teachers. It was not easy for teachers to control a class of more than 40 students when they developed group work tasks.
Moreover, some other difficulties were pointed out by the teachers. For example, some teachers had problem with the heavy load of the textbook. They could not cover the textbook fully if they used supplementary materials for extra activities. A small number of teachers felt hard to evaluate their students‘ work.
Overall, in this chapter, the researcher has presented the findings collected from the questionnaire for students and for teachers. Because the survey was restricted to only a small number of teachers and students, the result surely cannot be an accurate evaluation of the effectiveness of picture stories in teaching speaking at Vietnamese Junior Secondary school. However, the findings here may provide useful information for teachers and researchers to build the most suitable method for teaching speaking English in certain contexts.
CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The final chapter provides a brief summary of the outcomes and discusses the study results with reference to the research questions a relevant literature in the field. All major findings, limitations, and suggestion for further study will be concisely presented.
5.1. Findings and discussion
Overall, the study investigated thoroughly the use of picture stories in speaking lessons for eighth- grade pupils at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School, Dan Phuong, Ha Noi. Through the critical analysis of the instrumentation, significant results could be put forward as follows:
Firstly, students have very positive attitudes to the use of picture stories in speaking lessons. Most of adolescents enjoying reading illustrated stories because these stories often have simple plot and attractive pictures. They do not meet many difficulties to understand the story content. Though few students believe that they can learn structures and vocabulary from picture stories, they find the lessons using this material type very interesting. Thus, their intrinsic motivation is increased.
Secondly, using picture stories in speaking lessons make the classroom more comfortable and supportive. This helps students gain more confidence to take part in speaking activities. As a result, students‘ involvement in the class is enhanced. However, we should note some themes and activities can draw more attention from students than others. For example, drama is favored by most students, but discussing is not. Fairy tales and science fiction are approved the most by children. Teachers should have proper modification to promote their students‘ participation.
Moreover, as regards to teachers‘ remarks on effectiveness of picture stories, teachers highly evaluate the benefits brought to speaking class by this type of material.
According to them, picture stories are very effective in speaking class. The material makes their students participate more actively in the class, and reduces their anxiety.
Finally, using picture stories in speaking class also encounters some difficulties.
On the side of students, it may be difficult for them to understand the stories because the plot is not always simple, and the pictures may not usually illustrate the content exactly.
In addition, some activities based on stories have high requirements on language competence and knowledge. They cause some students depressed because they can not catch up with the rest of the class. Moreover, working with others in group is not always smoothly. On the side of teachers, using picture stories is quite complicated due to large class with different levels. Teachers find it hard to ‗pitch‘ their lessons at a level where all students can be engaged. Besides, heavy load of textbook is also a critical problem.
For some teachers, it is hard to both cover the text book and promote picture stories in the class because using this supplementary material seems to be very time consuming.
In brief, results from the survey show that generally there is evidence to suggest that picture stories have potential to motivate students to speak. If teachers can find good solutions for the difficulties, they can increase students‘ motivation the best.
5.2. Recommendation
In this part, the researcher would like to give some suggestions for difficulties of using picture stories in speaking class.
Firstly, for the situation that students may get bored because they do not understand the stories, teachers should choose stories with simple plot to ensure students‘
understanding. More contexts or pictures can be provided to support students. Teachers should also pay more attention to weak students to help them catch up with others.
Secondly, teachers can help their students retell a story easily by using the picture series of that story with the text deleted. Students may have difficulty to memorize the content to retell. But with the assistance of pictures, this task is much easier.
Thirdly, to deal with mixed ability of the class, it is possible to take group work as one useful solution. Weak students will feel more confident to raise their voices in groups rather than in front of the class. Group work also helps to form the cooperation among the members in the class. However, to ensure the effectiveness of group work, teachers should arrange students of the same level into a group. With such arrangement, weak students will not have feeling of falling behind. Moreover, teachers can also pair weaker
students with stronger students. Both students benefit in this situation. Stronger students solidify their knowledge of English because they have to explain things to the weaker students. And weaker students benefit because they get things explained to them in different ways.
Lastly, teachers should share resources among themselves so that they will not spend so much time on searching for new materials.
5.3. Limitation
Due to many restrictions in terms of time, scope of the study and the author‘s limited knowledge and experience, the drawbacks are unavoidable. The subject matter of the thesis has not been researched as thoroughly and deeply as it should be. What is written and investigated in the thesis is partly based on the different reference materials on the issue and partly attributes to the author‘s own knowledge in methodology.
Hopefully, the author would receive both critical and lenient review from the readers.
5.4. Conclusion
The objective of this study is to examine effects of picture stories on motivating students speaking English. Findings from the study show that both pupils and teachers have positive attitudes toward the use of picture stories in the class. Pupils feel self- confident, comfortable, and more involved in the class using this type of material. For teachers, they are all aware that picture stories can motivate their students effectively.
The researcher concluded that the use of picture stories can be effective in promoting the interest and motivation in speaking activities in English class of eighth grade students at Luong The Vinh Junior Secondary School.
5.5. Suggestion for further studies
Further researchers who wish to conduct further studies on applying picture stories in teaching English can delve into the topic by enlarging and diversifying the participants of the study. Pupils of other grades can be involved to make a wider scale of target populations. In such a way, the topic can be expected to produce more generalised results.