Tài liệu Using communicative classroom activities to support efl students’ oral presentation an action research project at nguyen trai ba dinh high school in hanoi .

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES BÙI THỊ THỦY Bùi Thị Thủy ENGLISH LANGUAGE USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT NGUYEN TRAI-BA DINH HIGH SCHOOL IN HA NOI MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSE: 2017 – 2019 HA NOI, 2019 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Bùi Thị Thủy USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT NGUYEN TRAI-BA DINH HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga, Ph.D. HA NOI, 2019 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I, Bùi thị Thủy, certify that the thesis entitled “Using communicative classroom activities to support EFL students’ oral presentation: An action research project at Nguyen Trai-Ba Dinh High School in Hanoi” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts in English language. I confirm that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees. The research reported in this thesis was approved by Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. Author’s Signature Bùi Thị Thủy Approved by SUPERVISOR Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga, Ph.D. Date: ………………………….. i ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS Although only one name appears as the author of this work, writing a thesis is indeed a collaborative effort. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the many people who made it possible. First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my M.A thesis’s supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga for her kind consultation, invaluable encouragement as well as thorough correction in the process of completion. Without her helpful guidance, this study would not have been achieved. Next, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr. Đặng Nguyên Giang and the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable comments. Specially, millions of my special thanks go to the teachers and students of Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School who participated in this study for their kind and patient co-operation and encouragement. They helped provide me with valuable data for the study so that I could have a better view of activities in presentation task in English speaking classes at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Ha Noi. Finally, I am deeply indebted to my family for their sympathy and support during all the time I was studying for M.A degree at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. Without their unconditional love and sincere contribution, I could not have overcome my difficulties and concentrated on my studies.. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION BY AUTHOR..................................................................... i ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS............................................................................ ii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS ............................................................... viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1 1.1. Rationale ............................................................................................... 1 1.2. Aims and Objectives of the Study ........................................................ 2 1.3. Research Questions............................................................................... 3 1.4. Scope of the Study ................................................................................ 3 1.5. Significance of the Study...................................................................... 3 1.6. Research Methods................................................................................. 3 1.7. Structure of the Study ........................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................... 5 2.1. Communicative Competence................................................................ 5 2.2. Communicative Language Teaching .................................................... 7 2.3. Communicative Activities .................................................................... 8 2.3.1. Definition of Communicative Activities ................................................................... 8 2.3.2. Characteristics of Communicative Activities .......................................................... 9 2.4. Oral Presentation ................................................................................ 10 2.4.1. General Understanding of Oral Presentation. ..................................................... 10 2.4.2. Skills/ Sub-skills Involved in Oral Presentation.................................................... 12 2.4.3. The Problems Faced by Students When Doing Oral Presentation ................... 15 2.4.4.2. Organization of the Presentation......................................................................... 19 iii 2.4.4.3. Presentation Skills.................................................................................................. 20 2.4.4.4. Performing Self Reflections .................................................................................. 21 2.4.5. Evaluating and Assessing an Oral Presentation.................................................. 22 2.5. Classroom Communicative Activities to Support Oral Presentation . 23 2.6. Previous Studies ................................................................................. 27 2.7. Summary ............................................................................................. 29 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY............................................................... 30 3.1. Research Design ..................................................................................... 30 3.1.1. Definitions of Action Research................................................................................ 30 3.3.2. Action Research Procedures ................................................................................... 33 3.2. The Context of the Study ....................................................................... 35 3.3. Participants ............................................................................................. 36 3.3.1. The Researcher- Teacher......................................................................................... 36 3.3.2. The Teachers.............................................................................................................. 37 3.3.3. The Students ............................................................................................................... 37 3.4. Procedures of the Current Study ............................................................ 38 3.4.1. Diagnosing (week 1-2) ............................................................................................. 39 3.4.2. Planning (before the beginning of week 3)............................................................ 39 3.4.3. Acting and Observing (from Week 3 to Week 16) ................................................ 40 3.4.4. Reflecting (Week 17- 18) .......................................................................................... 41 3.5. Data Collection Instruments................................................................... 42 3.5.1. Diagnosing ................................................................................................................. 42 3.5.2. Acting and Observing ............................................................................................... 45 3.6. Data Collection....................................................................................... 49 3.7. Data Analysis ......................................................................................... 49 3.8. Summary ................................................................................................ 50 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ....................................... 51 iv 4.1. Data Collection and Analysis from Survey Questionnaire .................... 51 4.1.1. Survey Questionnaire for Teachers .................................................................. 51 4.1.2. Survey Questionnaire for Students ......................................................................... 56 4.2. The Data from the Speaking Test and English-Speaking Observation . 59 4.3. The Data from the Students’ Opinions through Communicative Activities ....................................................................................................... 64 4.4. Discussions of the Findings ................................................................... 66 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 69 5.1. Recapitulation ..................................................................................... 69 5.2. Concluding Remarks .......................................................................... 70 5.3. Implications ............................................................................................ 71 5.3.1. Application of Communicative activities ............................................................... 71 5.3.2. Practical Tips for Teachers ..................................................................................... 72 5.4.1. Limitations.................................................................................................................. 74 5.4.2. Suggestions for Further Studies .............................................................................. 74 REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 75 APPENDIX 1 .................................................................................................... I APPENDIX 2 .................................................................................................III APPENDIX 3 .................................................................................................. V APPENDIX 4 ................................................................................................. VI APPENDIX 5 .............................................................................................. VIII APPENDIX 6 ................................................................................................. IX APPENDIX 7 ................................................................................................. XI APPENDIX 8: .............................................................................................. XII APPENDIX 9: ............................................................................................. XIV APPENDIX 10: ............................................................................................ XX v ABSTRACT This thesis has made attempts to examine: (1) the attitudes of the 10th graders and the teachers at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School towards communicative activities in speaking lessons, (2) if the use of communicative activities could support the students in doing oral presentation tasks. Specially, an action research project was carried out with the participation of 40 students in Grade 10A8 at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Hanoi. The study lasted 18 weeks and involved some data instruments namely questionnaire, pre-test, observation, post-test. The data collected in the initial stage showed that the obstacles of doing oral presentation tasks mainly came from the teaching methods and the differences of students’ English abilities, which resulted in differences in their attitude to speaking lessons. An action plan of applying communicative classroom activities was implemented. The data collected in the action stage pointed out that the students’ oral presentation was improved and the positive changes in their attitude toward speaking classes were also witnessed after the intervention. vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: A distinction between non- communicative activities 10 and communicative ones. Table 2: Assessing Speaking Performance- Level B1 (CEFR) 23 Table 3: Procedures of the study 38 Table 4: Frame of Questionnaire for Teachers 44 Table 5: Frame of Questionnaire for Students 44 Table 6: A comparison of Mean Score on Pre-Test and Post- 60 Test by Three Raters Table 7: A comparison of the Speaking Observation in Each 61 Lesson Plan Table 8: The Mean Score of the Students’ Opinions toward Communicative Activities vii 65 LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS Page Figure 1: Action Research Cycle 35 Chart 1: Category 1 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 52 Chart 2: Category 2 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 53 Chart 3: Category 3 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 54 Chart 4: Category 4 of the Questionnaire for Teachers 55 Chart 5: Category 1 of the Questionnaire for Students 56 Chart 6: Category 2 of the Questionnaire for Students 57 Chart 7: Category 3 of the Questionnaire for Students 58 Chart 8: Category 4 of the Questionnaire for Students 59 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR: Action Research CEFR: Common European Framework for Reference CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as Foreign Language ESL: English as Second Language L2: Second Language RQ: Research Question ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale Nowadays, in the era of the globalization and international exchange, English is one of the most important means of communication and access to information. In this context, the teaching and learning of English is more and more necessary. English has become a compulsory subject at high school throughout the country. Thanks to the innovation of new textbooks, Vietnamese high schools now have a chance to get better access to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methods, which bring students interest in learning English. However, it is a fact that many high school students do not find speaking practice interesting. They are not confident enough to converse with English teachers or native speakers, especially in doing oral presentation. Furthermore, students’ oral presentation accounts for a major part of many lessons at secondary schools as well as in universities because they are one of the communicative goals. The potential benefits of developing student oral presentations include greater class interaction and participation, increased interest in learning, new perspectives, and improvement in communication and presentation skills. Students can gain knowledge not only from the work they and other students perform, but also by observing other presenters’ strengths and weaknesses to develop better communication and presentation skills. Despite the positive aspects of using student presentations in the classroom, some students may show resistance to do extra work, having fear in public speaking, or displaying boredom while sitting through others’ oral presentations. Therefore, such students may have generally negative beliefs 1 about giving classroom presentations. As a teacher of English at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School, a secondary school, for more than ten years, the researcher feels rather concerned about her students’ English learning, especially their ability in speaking English and making oral presentations. Although her students have learnt English since they were in grade 3, under the new syllabus and new methods based on the communicative approach, their foreign language knowledge is thought not to be sufficient to meet the demands of using English as an international language. Of course, they can hardly use English to communicate and do presentation tasks. Wondering if applying communicative classroom activities can help to motivate the students to solve their incompetence as mentioned above, the researcher has decided to conduct the study on “Using communicative classroom activities to support EFL students’ oral presentation: An action research project at Nguyen Trai-Ba Dinh High school in Hanoi” to find out the solutions, and, to help improve the teaching and learning of English at her school 1.2. Aims and Objectives of the Study The aim of the study is to improve the EFL students’ oral presentation at Nguyen Trai-Ba Dinh high school in Hanoi. In order to achieve the aim, the study is expected to reach the following objectives: - Investigating the attitudes of the EFL students and the teachers towards communicative classroom activities in speaking lessons; - Evaluating the effectiveness of communicative classroom activities in supporting EFL students’ oral presentation. 2 1.3. Research Questions The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the research questions as follows: 1. To what extent do the communicative classroom activities support the students in doing their oral presentation tasks? 2. What are the attitudes of the EFL students and the teachers towards communicative classroom activities in speaking lesson? 1.4. Scope of the Study Due to time constraints, the study cannot cover all the techniques to stimulate students’ speaking ability in a language class. Therefore, it mainly focuses on some typical communicative classroom activities which may produce a stimulus for the 10th grade Nguyen Trai - Ba Dinh High school students’ oral presentation. 1.5. Significance of the Study Hopefully, the study will make a small contribution to the application of communicative language teaching approaches in developing the students’ ability in doing oral presentation task at secondary school level in general and at Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School in Hanoi in particular. 1.6. Research Methods In order to achieve the aim, action research procedures are used in the study. The data will be collected via survey questionnaires, class observations and tests. 1.7. Structure of the Study 3 The study consists of five chapters: Chapter 1 – Introduction: The first chapter gives reasons for choosing the thesis, scope and aims of the study as well as the research method and the structure of the study. Chapter 2 – Literature Review: This chapter focuses on an overview of Communicative Competence, Communicative Language Teaching, Communicative Activities, Oral Presentation as well as previous studies on improving or developing students’ oral presentation. Chapter 3 - Methodology: This chapter reports the context settings, research hypothesis, participants, instruments and the procedure of conducting Action Research for the study. The detailed results of the surveys and a critical comprehensive analysis on the data collected are presented. Chapter 4- Findings and Discussion: This part deals with the data analysis from the Action Research results to make the foundation for the activities recommended in Chapter 5. Chapter 5 – Conclusion: This chapter summarizes the study and suggests some typical activities as well as practical tips for teachers to stimulate 10th -grade students’ oral presentation in an English speaking lesson. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also included in this chapter. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The study investigates the effectiveness of using communicative classroom activities to support the Nguyen Trai- Ba Dinh High School students’ oral presentation. This chapter reviews the theories and literature relevant to the study area. It is divided into 6 parts, namely: Communicative Competence, Communicative Language Teaching, Communicative activities, Oral presentation, Classroom communicative activities to support oral presentation, and Previous studies. 2.1. Communicative Competence The term “communicative competence” is comprised of two words, the combination of which means “competence to communicate”. This simple lexico - semantic analysis uncovers the fact that the central word in the syntagm “communicative competence” is the word “competence”. “Competence” is one of the most controversial terms in the field of general and applied linguistics. Its introduction to linguistic discourse has been generally associated with Chomsky (1965) who in his very influential book “Aspects of the Theory of Syntax” drew what has been today viewed as a classic distinction between competence (the monolingual speaker-listener’s knowledge of language) and performance (the actual use of language in real situations). Soon after Chomsky (1980) proposed and defined the concepts of competence and performance, advocates for a communicative view in applied 5 linguistics (e.g. Savignon, 1972) expressed their strong disapproval at the idea of using the concept of idealized, purely linguistic competence as a theoretical ground of the methodology for learning, teaching and testing languages. They found the alternative to Chomsky’s concept of competence in Hymes’s communicative competence which they believed to be a broader and more realistic notion of competence. Namely, Hymes (1972) defined communicative competence not only as an inherent grammatical competence but also as the ability to use grammatical competence in a variety of communicative situations, thus bringing the sociolinguistic perspective into Chomsky’s linguistic view of competence. Recent theoretical and empirical research on communicative competence is largely based on the description of components of communicative language competence in the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR, 2001), the model which is intended for assessment as well as for learning and teaching of languages. In the CEF, communicative competence is conceived only in terms of knowledge. It includes three basic components – language competence, sociolinguistic competence and pragmatic competence. Thus, strategic competence is not its componential part. It is interesting, however, that each component of language knowledge is explicitly defined as knowledge of its contents and ability to apply it. For instance, language competence or linguistic competence refers to knowledge of and ability to use language resources to form well-structured messages. The subcomponents of language competence are lexical, grammatical, semantic, phonological, orthographic and orthopedic competences. Sociolinguistic competence refers to possession of knowledge and skills for appropriate language use in a social context. The following aspects of this competence are highlighted: language elements that mark social relationships, 6 rules of appropriate behavior, and expressions of peoples’ wisdom, differences in register and dialects and stress. The last component in this model - pragmatic competence - involves two subcomponents: discourse competence and functional competence. A part of both of these competences is the so-called planning competence which refers to sequencing of messages in accordance with interactional and transactional schemata. Strategic competence is mentioned in the part the CEFR dedicated to a discussion of communicative language use. This competence is conceived as strategy use in the broadest sense. Thus, the stress is put not only on the use of communication strategies which can help to overcome the lack in a particular area of language knowledge but on the use of all types of communication strategies. As to the authors of the CEFR, the use of strategies can be compared with the application of meta-cognitive principles (planning, achieving, controlling and correcting) on different forms of language activity: reception, interaction, production and meditating. 2.2. Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach which proposes that language learning should be done in a meaningful setting with authentic language as the input. It is an umbrella term which consists of an array of methods and techniques (Parrish, 2004). According to Lindsay and Knight (2006, p.20), this approach is based on the view that language is learnt in order to communicate effectively “in the world outside the classroom.” It emphasizes on meaningful use of language for communication, rather than on the form and structure; hence the term “real-life” communication in the classroom (Brown, 2000). Savignon (2001, p.13) describes CLT as the “new”, “innovative” way of teaching English as a second or foreign language as it 7 deals with “the interactive nature of communication.” CLT puts an importance on fluency and ability to communicate in a variety of settings and in a variety of ways. Nguyen (2010, p.209) points out that “CLT may currently be considered and accepted as an inclusive approach to language teaching, which encompasses various approaches and methods, motivations for learning English, types of teachers and the needs of individual classrooms and students themselves; it is learner-centered and emphasizes communication in real-life situations.” CLT emphasizes on contextualized, meaning-based instructions and the use of authentic materials, as well as maximum learner interaction (Parrish, 2004). According to the principles of the CLT, the learners do not study only the linguistic structures and the rules of grammar, but it stressed the importance of using language for communication (Allwright, 1978; Cambell, 1972; Numan, 1991; Richards & Rodgers, 1995; Savignon, 1991). Besides, Johnson (1981) suggested while studying, students must try to communicate with their peers and try to make them understand what they have said. Furthermore, teaching English for communication is to emphasize the language competence for learners and they must try to communicate in real situation (Murphy, 1991). As such, it could be conluded that in order to teach language for communicative purposes, the teacher must put the emphasis on the students’ communicative competence to use it in real communications. 2.3. Communicative Activities 2.3.1. Definition of Communicative Activities According to CEFR (2001, pp. 73-93), communicative activities with one or more interlocutors are generally undertaken by a language user in pursuance of his or her needs in a given situation. In the educational domain, 8 communicative tasks may be helpful to distinguish between the tasks which learners are required to tackle as language users and those in which they engage as part of the language learning process itself. According to Hammer (1991), communicative activities are those that give students the desire to communicate, involving them in a various use of the language. Such activities are crucially important in a language classroom since the students can do their best to use the language individually, arriving at a degree of language autonomy. In other words, communicative activities are those that can stimulate communicative competence in the learners. Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to find out appropriate activities to encourage students to use the language. In order to design these activities effectively, the teacher needs further understanding of them. Accordingly, the following section will discuss the characteristics and types of communicative activities. 2.3.2. Characteristics of Communicative Activities According to Harmer (1991), Communicative Activities are those that give students involved desire and a purpose to communicate. Such activities are very beneficial for students because they can do their best to use the target language and arrive at the degree of proficiency in the end. Nolasco & Athur (1993) characterized communicative activities with some following characteristics. Firstly, they involve using language for a purpose. Secondly, they create a desire to communicate. This means there must be some kind of “gap” which may be information, opinion, or reason that students seek to bridge. Thirdly, they encourage students to be creative and contribute their ideas. Fourthly, they focus on the message and students concentrate on “what” they are saying rather than “how” they are saying it. 9