Tài liệu USING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Minh Hằng USING PROJECT – BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HANOI, 2019 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Lê Minh Hằng USING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph.D. HANOI, 2019 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR I hereby sincerely state that the thesis titled “Using Project-Based Learning to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment”is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Language. The things out of my masterpiece in this thesis are signed by citation and referred in the references. Except where reference has been made in the text, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person.The study reported in this thesis was approved by Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. Author’s Signature Lê Minh Hằng Approved by SUPERVISOR Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph.D. Date: ………………………….. i ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS Completing this thesis is one of the hardest challenges and the greatest desires in my life. It was made possible thanks to the encouragement, assistance and support of many people. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Đặng Nguyên Giang who provided me with valuable advice from my first few days in the course and through the duration of my thesis to completion. His constructive suggestion and untiring supervision not only encouraged me to complete my dissertation, but it helped me effectively develop my research skills as well. In addition, I am very much grateful to the teachers of Department of Foreign Languages and the other staff at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable comments. Especially, I would like to give sincere thanks to my colleagues at the Department of English at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment for their encouragement and attendances during my study. My appreciation also goes to all twenty eight students at class English3- 27 who participated in this study for their patient cooperation. Both teachers and students who have been involved at different stages in this action research helped provide valuable data so that I have a better views of teaching speaking at university. Finally, this study is dedicated to my family for their sympathy and financial support during my study for M.A degree at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences. With their love and contribution, I am strongly motivated to complete this thesis. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION BY AUTHOR i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 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 of the Study 3 1.3. Research Questions 3 1.4. Scope of the Study 3 1.5. Significance of the Study 4 1.6. Research Methods 5 1.7. Structure of the Study 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1. Concepts of Speaking 6 2.1.1. Definitions of Speaking 6 2.1.2. The Nature of Speaking 7 2.1.3. The Components of Speaking 8 2.2. Speaking Teaching 10 2.2.1. Direct and Indirect Method of Teaching Speaking 10 2.2.2. Principles for Techniques in Teaching Speaking 11 2.2.3. Speaking Activities in the Classroom 12 2.3. Project-based Learning 14 iii 2.3.1 Definitions of project-based Learning 14 2.3.2. Types of Projects 15 2.3.3. Evaluation in Project-based Learning 17 2.4. Project-based Learning in English Language Teaching 18 2.4.1. Phases for Implementing a Project-based Learning Projects Teaching Speaking 18 2.4.2. Teachers’ Roles in Project-based Learning 19 2.4.3. Advantages and Possible Restriction of Project-based Learning in Teaching English as Foreign Language 20 2.5. Previous Research 23 2.6. Summary 25 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 26 3.1. Research Setting 26 3.2. Participants 28 3.3. Data Collection Instruments 30 3.4. Research Design 34 3.5. Research Procedures 36 3.6. Data Analysis 39 3.7. Summary 40 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 41 4.1. Data Analysis from Questionnaires 41 4.2. Data Analysis from Test 51 4.3. Data Analysis from Interviews 55 4.4. Data Analysis from Classroom Observation 61 4.5. Summary 65 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 66 iv 5.1. Recapitulation 66 5.2. Concluding Remarks 68 5.3. Implications 70 5.4. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies 71 REFERENCES 73 APPENDIX 1: Scoring Rubic for Speaking Test I APPENDIX 2: Pre-test of Speaking III APPENDIX 3: Survey questionnaire IV APPENDIX 4:PBL survey questionnaire VI APPENDIX 5: Post-test of Speaking IX APPENDIX 6: Interview questions X APPENDIX 7: A Sample of Lesson Plan v XI ABSTRACT This research tries to attempt to know the effectiveness of Projectbased learning on speaking ability as well as students’perceptions toward the implementation.The researcher executed action research design at class English 2-27 with the participation of twenty eight first-year students and cooperation of two teachers as observers at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment for more than two months. This research applied an embedded mixed-method design in which the quantitative data were collected using speaking test, and the qualitative data were collected using interview, observation checklist and survey questionnaires.The results of the analysis showed a significant effect of PBL on students’ speaking competence; additionally, theywere found to have a higher level of motivation, interest, confidence, creativity and collaborative learning skills in speaking lessons. Based on the findings, this study recommends the implementation of PBL in Teaching English as Foreign Language. vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Subdivision of Projects according to Outcomes 17 Table 2: The Criteria of Speaking Performance 31 Table 3: Observation Checklist 38 Table 4: Students’ Evaluation of their Achievement on English 49 knowledge Table 5: Students’ Evaluation of their Achievement on Speaking 49 skills Table 6: Students’ Evaluation of their Achievement on Learning 49 skills Table 7: Comparison of Mean Scores between Pre-test and Post-test 52 Table 8: Students’ scores of both tests 53 Table 9: Summary of projects carried out by students 56 vii LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS Page Chart 1: Students’ willingness in speaking English in class 43 Chart 2: The factors affecting students’ limited performance of 43 speaking skills Chart 3: Students’ choices of speaking activities 45 Chart 4: Students’ comments on learning environment 46 Chart 5: Students’ opinions of the application of PBL 48 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR: Action Research EFL: English as Foreign Language PBL: Project-Based Learning HUNRE: Hanoi University of Natural Environment T: Teacher Ss: Students ix Resources and CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale In the context of intercultural communication, English is described as one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, which results in the continuous shift of demands on learning and acquiring this language in English non-spoken countries and contributes to the movement of teaching English as a foreign language. Since Vietnam started to open its door to the world in 1986, English has increasingly taken an important role and become an unchangeable mean of keeping up with the pace of the rapidly changing world. The importance of English was immediately acknowledged by the Vietnamese government, and as a result, the English language programs became compulsory with the secondary schools and subsequently the high schools and finally universities. The teaching of English in Vietnamese schools has been strongly focusing on grammar, sentence structures and vocabulary so as to meet fundamental requirements of evaluation and assessment criterion. In such a teaching content, conversational English has not come into educators’ focus, which leads to learners’ limited abilities of communicating with foreigners or expressing their ideas in a second language. As a result, after at least seven years learning English in schools, there have been a number of students in universities facing big challenges from mastering speaking skill. They are normally found to have several problems in oral activities, such as reluctance, fluency, shyness or fear of committing mistakes. The reality shows that most of the students at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment (HUNRE) find it challenging in communicating well orally. From what students have displayed in their oral 1 performances in the classes and their results in latest final tests, a large number of students are not able to describe their personalities or even their daily activities in English. Their abilities of mastering speaking skill are normally highly complained by the teachers not just about pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar accuracy but fluency level, gesture improving and communicative competence as well. To deal with this challenge, language teachers need to employ appropriate English teaching and learning methods that may encourage the students to use language with an emphasis on communicative purposes in real world settings, rather than completely focus on grammatical accuracy as in traditional teaching. It is stated that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997 as stated in Flowrez (1999)). It requires great amount of exercise and practice, otherwise the students’ speaking cannot be improved. In addition, Brown (1994) states that anxiety is one of problems faced by the students in speaking because they are afraid to be judged as stupid and incomprehensible people. Therefore, a linguistic teacher needs to create safe learning environment so that the students feel comfortable and confident enough to get themselves involved in classroom oral activities. Blumenfeld (1991) said that project-based learning (PBL) seemed to match this English teaching and learning needs, especially the benefits of learning by practice. The PBL technique refers to a method allowing to do the designing, planning and carrying out tasks in order to produce, publish and present a product. Throughout the PBL technique, learners are encouraged to complete authentic activities (project-work), so that they have the opportunity to use the language in a relatively natural context and participate in 2 meaningful activities which require authentic use of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) language kill. Throughout this classroom action research, the researcher tries to experiment and adapt PBL techniques on teaching English speaking skills for the non-major first-year students so that a solution may be then tohelp them be more motivated and interested in speaking. Accordingly, the researcher decides to examine how well project-based learning impact the students’ speaking skills. 1.2. Aim(s) of the Study The aim of the study is to improve the first-year students’ English speaking skill at HUNRE. In order to achieve the aim, the study is expected to reach the following objectives: - Investigating the first-year students’ attitudes towards the projectbased learning techniques used in their speaking periods. - Evaluating the effectiveness of the project-based learning techniquesapplied to English speaking skill teaching and learning. 1.3. Research Questions The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the research questions as follows: - How do the project-based learning promote the first year students’ motivation? - To what extent, do the project-based learning increase the first year students’ speaking outcome? 1.4. Scope of the Study In this study, the researcher focally identifies the effectiveness of employing the project-based learning techniques on improving non-major first 3 year students’ speaking skills as well as their attitudes towards oral activities. There will be twenty-eight students at elementary level participating in this action research. They are expected to have basic knowledge of English about grammar, acceptable ranges of vocabulary; or limited but effective command of the language in familiar situations such as family topics and lifestyle expression. They may have studied English through years of secondary and high school, but not have had much opportunity to practice speaking English. They are selected to take part in this investigation to check how well their background of English and potential abilities of speaking can be activated and improved after PBL is applied in their speaking lessons. 1.5. Significance of the Study Theoretically, this study is expected to make a contribution to development in teaching speaking at HUNRE so as to get more achievement not just in methodology but in further development of English Department as well. In addition, the research findings will partly enrich the previous theories and research on EFL teaching and learning, especially in teaching English speaking skill. Practically, it is highly hopeful that the results of the study can provide the teachers of English at HUNRE with a good alternative way for teaching speaking skill, which can attract student’s attention and get them more interested in the lessons. In the terms of students, they are the main subject to take potential benefits of learning from PBL which helps them enhance not only their working skills (individually, pair work or team work), but also skills of planning, critical thing and creativity ability. Specifically, their needs of learning English is hoped to be fulfilled. They can build their projects to suit their own interests and abilities. Furthermore, learners can increase in 4 problem-solving skills, meaning that they are able to identify the topics and their problems, then seek possible solutions. 1.6. Research Methods In order to achieve the aim, action research procedures are used in the present study. In schools, action research (AR) refers to a process of evaluation, investigation, and analysis designed to diagnose problems or weaknesses – whether organizational, academic, or instructional – and help educators develop practical solutions to address them quickly and efficiently.The data were collected via survey questionnaires, classroom observations, interviews, and oral tests. 1.7. Structure of the Study This research is organized in the following manner. The first chapter gives reasons for choosing the thesis, scopes and aims of the study as well as the research methods. Chapter two begins the journey with an overview of the literature by providing the theoretical foundations, defining project-based learning in relationship to several other similar approaches, and also discusses previous studies in the area. Chapter three gives the specific description of the methodology, which includes research setting, participants, data collection instruments, research design, research procedures and data analysis. Chapter four discusses the analysis and results from the data which are divided into four main sections, reflecting the different types of data present in the study. Chapter five concludes with a discussion of the findings of the study and its implications for second language teaching theory and practice. Last but not least, the limitations of the study and directions for future research are also concluded. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Concepts of Speaking 2.1.1. Definitions of speaking Speaking is a kind of communicative and interactive activity between people in which information is continuously produced, received and processed so that the participants are able to converse and express their thoughts and feelings. The form and meaning of information are dependent on the context in which it occurs including the physical environment, the purpose of conversation and the collective experience of the participants (Burns & Joyce, 1997). It is supported by Byrne (1984), in this oral activity, both the speakers and the listeners have positive function in deciding success and failure of this communication process. The speakers are responsible for creating a clear message that will be understood and responded by the listeners. A speaker must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected patterns of specific discourse situation. For example, when a salesman asks “How can I help you?”, the expected discourse sequence includes a statement of need, an offer of appreciation and a leave-taking exchange. In order to give the correct response, a learner must understand the setting in which the speech act occurs, choose the correct vocabulary to describe the item sought, rephrase or emphasize words to clarify the description if the clerk does not understand. Therefore, as Brown (1994) states that in order to communicate successfully, a speaker needs to develop both linguistic competence and sociolinguistic competence at the same time. It means that speaking requires learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as 6 grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, but also that they understand when, why and in what ways to produce language. Based on the definitions above, it can be conducted that learning to speak involves “developing a number of complex skill and different types of knowledge about when and how to communicate” (Brown, 1994). As a result, in speaking lessons, teachers should monitor learners’ speech production to determine what skills and knowledge they already have and what areas need development. 2.1.2. The nature of speaking Brown (2004) states that speaking is a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed, “those observations are invariably colored by the accuracy and effectiveness of a test taker’s listening skill, which necessarily compromises the interaction between teacher and students or among the students which depends on how classroom activities are organized”. He further states that there are some basic types of speaking as in the following: a. Imitative: this type of speaking refers to the ability of imitating a word, a phrase or a sentence. The purely phonetic level of oral production, a number of lexical and grammatical properties of language may be included in the criterion performance. b. Intensive: The production of short stretches of oral language is designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical or phonological relationship. c. Responsive: This type include interaction and test comprehension but at the somewhat limited level of very short conversations, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments. 7 d. Interactive: The difference between responsive and interactive speaking is in the length and complexity of the interaction, which sometimes includes multiple exchanges or multiple participants. Interaction can take the two forms of transactional language, which has the purpose of exchanging specific information or interpersonal exchanges which have the purpose of maintaining social relationship. e. Extensive: extensive oral production tasks include speeches, oral representation and storytelling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited or ruled out together. 2.1.3. The components of speaking skill According to Vanderkevent (1990), there are three components in speaking, including: the speakers, the listeners and the utterances. Speakers are people who produce the sound, they are useful as the tool to express opinion or feelings to the hearer. Therefore, if there are no speaker, the opinion or the feelings will not be stated. On the other hand, listeners are people who receive or get the speakers’ opinion or feeling. If there are no listeners, speaker will mostly express their opinion by writing. Last but not least, the utterances are words or sentences produced by the speakers to state the opinions and feelings As proposed by Brown (1994), speaking is not simply expressing something orally, it asks language learners to acquire some aspects of oral performance so that they can improve their speaking competence. Those aspects consist of pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and accuracy (Harris, 1974) a. Pronunciation: Pronunciation refers to the students’ ability to produce clear language to fulfill the task requirements. It becomes important because it gives 8 meaning to what is being said. Therefore, to make a successful communication happen, clear messages need to be delivered for listeners. Wrong pronunciation may cause misunderstanding or people involved in a conversation are offended. In speaking, teaching pronunciation includes stress, rhythm and intonation. b. Fluency It is pointed out that a fluent speaker is a person who can express a sequence of ideas easily, smoothly and expressively. In a language classroom, speaking activities which focus on fluency require students to get things done smoothly through conversation, with a few acceptable infrequent pauses. Harris proposes a model in assessing speaking in which fluency is measured by considering the total number of seconds of silence and time spent saying “uhm”, “ah” by subjects as they complete a task. c. Grammar “Grammar is the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence” (Harris, 1974), so it is needed for students to build up a correct sentence in conversation. If there are too full of grammar mistakes during a dialogue, the communication will be certainly slowed down. d. Vocabulary Vocabulary is a set of lexemes, consisting single words, compound words and idioms that are typically used when talking something. To be able to speak fluently and accurately, learners should master enough vocabulary and has capability to use it accurately. e. Comprehension 9