VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ THU THẢO AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE ADAPTATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TO ENHANCE GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC PROVINCE MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU KHÁM PHÁ VỀ ĐIỀU CHỈNH HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11 CHƢƠNG TRÌNH MỚI ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TẠI MỘT TRƢỜNG THPT Ở TỈNH VĨNH PHÚC M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2022 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ THU THẢO AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE ADAPTATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TO ENHANCE GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC PROVINCE MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU KHÁM PHÁ VỀ ĐIỀU CHỈNH HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 11 CHƢƠNG TRÌNH MỚI ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TẠI MỘT TRƢỜNG THPT Ở TỈNH VĨNH PHÚC M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231. Nguyen Thuy Nga Hanoi – 2022 DECLARATION I, Dang Thi Thu Thao, certify that this thesis, titled " An exploratory study of the adaptation of speaking activities in the new English textbook to enhance grade 11 students’ speaking skill at a high school in Vinh Phuc province" was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of English Teaching degree at Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, is the product of my own study and efforts, and that it has not been presented elsewhere for any other reasons.
Hanoi, 2022 Signature Đặng Thị Thu Thảo Approved by SUPERVISOR (signature and full name) Assoc. Nguyen Thuy Nga Date:……………………………………. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to show my gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr Nguyen Thuy Nga, who has spent countless efforts in helping me complete this thesis.
I also would like to thank all lecturers and staff of the Department of Postgraduate Studies for their precious lessons. Secondly, I would like to express my thanks to the School Manager members for granting me permission to carry out this study at school, to my students and my colleagues at the school, who have been willing to answer my survey questionnaires and interviews. Their contribution to the completion of this thesis is immense and immeasurable. Lastly, I would like to thank my family, especially my husband for the moral support he provided me in this study.
Without him, I would not have the confidence to complete this study. ii ABSTRACT The teachers in a high school in Vinh Phuc Province have decided to adapt the speaking activities in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 11” to enhance the quality of teaching speaking, as well as the students’ learning experience. This study is conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the adaptations and students’ attitude towards this act. An exploratory using mixed methods with qualitative and quantitative analysis were used in this study.
The qualitative data were collected through the use of interviews with four teachers while the quantitative data were obtained by using the questionnaire survey administered to 116 students. The results of the study indicate that students’ speaking skills have been improved remarkably in all aspects of speaking skills, which were confirmed by both the students and teachers. It also found that the students and teachers in this study did find the adaptation of speaking activities in the new English textbook was necessary and had a favourable view towards the adaptation of learning materials. Furthermore, both teachers and students also responded that the students were motivated in the classroom after the speaking activities had been adapted, and they took part in the lessons more actively.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION TLMs : Teaching-Learning Materials OHP: Overhead Projector LORI: Learning Object Review Instrument that is very popular and welldocumented EFL: English Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION. iv LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF FIGURES.
viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Method of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the thesis. 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Overview of speaking skill and teaching speaking skill. Definition of speaking. Component of speaking. Requirements for speaking competence.
Factors affecting students’ speaking performance. Some classroom activities to teach speaking. Learning material adaptation. Definition of teaching-learning materials (TLM).
Assessing and evaluating learning materials. Rationale for adapting materials. Techniques for material adaptation. Principles for adapting materials.
Approaches to material adaptation. Review of previous studies. 19 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Context of the study.
Learning materials – Tieng Anh 11. Participants of the study .2 The English teachers. Data collection instruments. Semi-structured interviews.
Data collection procedures. 30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Research question 1: To what extent is the adaptation of learning materials effective in helping students improve their speaking skill?. Analysis of students’ questionnaires.
Analysis of teachers’ interviews. Discussion of the findings of the first research question. Research question 2: What are the students’ and teachers’ attitude towards the adaptation of the learning materials?. Data analysed from students’ questionnaires.
Data analysed from teachers’ interviews. Discussion of the findings of the second research question. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.
I vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Students' evaluation of how the adapted learning materials helped them to improve their speaking skills. Students' overall evaluation of speaking material adaptation. The students' perspectives of how the adapted materials motivated them.
The students’ opinion about whether the adapted materials helped improve the interaction in classrooms. The students’ perception of the adaptation of speaking activities. Students’ difficulties in participating the adapted speaking activities. Students’ response to how the teacher and peers helped them in learning using the adapted materials.
51 LIST OF FIGURES Figure1. Students' favorite adapted activities. 44 viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter represents the rationale, the aims and objectives, and research questions of the study. It also provides the significance, the scope, as well as the methodology of the study.
Additionally, it provides an overview of the research design. Rationale for the study Globalization has increased demand for English proficiency, since more firms, organizations, and businesses now do business on a worldwide level. English proficiency is critical since it assists in bridging language barriers between these organizations. Individuals with English proficiency in Vietnam are assured a greater job opportunity and access to a broader range of information.
Due to its importance, many resources have been invested in the practice of English teaching in several nations, including Vietnam. Several notable studies that have made significant contributions to English education include those by H. This movement also benefits the practice of English teaching in Vietnam. Additional studies have been conducted to determine its efficacy and to address any current concerns.
Several of the following studies may be mentioned: J. Speaking is likely the most critical language skill that learners must develop. The purpose of learning a foreign language is to facilitate communication and interaction with native speakers. Thus, the capacity to say words and sentences in the target language is critical, as it determines whether or not the communication is successful.
In the process of teaching English in a high school in Vinh Phuc Province, the teachers have realized the challenges that the students meet 1 using the learning material. Firstly, the students believe that some speaking activities in the new English textbook are too challenging for them to perform; secondly, the amount of time allocated for each speaking lesson is not sufficient for the students to practice speaking. Thus, since 2019, the teachers have adapted the materials by simplifying/abridging and expanding some activities to facilitate the students’ learning process. To be specific, some activities that require students to work individually are excluded, and more activities promoting the interactions between students – teachers and students – students are added.
The goal of this adaptation is to enhance students’ communicative competence. Material adaptation which is not a new concept in teaching has become the object of various research to support English teaching. Adapting teaching and learning materials have been associated with certain benefits and there are various ways to adapt speaking activities such as adding more pictures, pairwork and group work activities, which require learning materials to support the students completing these activities. Material adaptation, therefore, is of great importance in adapting speaking activities.
The rationales for adapting materials are that the published materials cannot provide the types of text and activities that a teacher seeks for a given class (Block, 1991); A textbook often delivers information in a manner that does not correspond to the realities of the classroom or the actual requirements of students; when teachers open a page in a textbook, they need to find answers to these questions: “Is the language at the right level? Is the topic/content suitable for the students? Is the sequencing of the lessons logical?” (Harmer, 2007). In other aspects, we may remark that adaptation's goal is to optimize the contextual relevance of teaching materials by altering some of the internal features of a course book to better fit our specific circumstances. 2 Material adaptation is considered to benefit learners (Nehal, 2016) (Dickinson, 2010). However, it is unknown if the material adaptation made in a high school in Vinh Phuc Province is effective in enhancing students’ speaking skills.
As such, the purpose of this exploratory is to determine if the adaptation of speaking activities in English textbook is sufficient and positively influential on students’ speaking skills in a high school in Vinh Phuc Province. To be more specific, it will examine whether the teachers and students in a high school in Vinh Phuc Province notice the improvements in their speaking skills, as well as how they respond to the implementation of the adaptation of speaking activities in the new English textbook. Aims and objectives of the study The aim of this exploratory study is to investigate how the adaptation of speaking activities in the new English textbook at a high school in Vinh Phuc Province, particularly the material adaptation helped students improve their speaking skills. To achieve the goal, the study objectives is to answer the two following questions: - To what extent is the adaptation of learning materials effective in helping students improve speaking skill? - What are students and teachers’ attitudes towards the adapted materials? 1.
Method of the study To achieve the stated goal, an exploratory research was employed in this study. This study followed a survey research design which employed a mixed method approach, using both quantitative and qualitative data. The first tool is a survey questionnaire for 116 students in grade 11 in a high school in Vinh Phuc Province. The second essential instrument is the semi- 3 structured interview for 4 teachers of English at the same school.
The students were required to complete a survey questionnaire regarding their perspective on the adapted materials as well as how the material adaptation improves their speaking skill. The teachers participated in personal interviews to share their viewpoints. Both of these tools were to help to find out whether the adaptation of learning materials improve students’ speaking skill as well as teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward the adapted materials. Scope of the study The study is to determine if the act of material adaptations at a high school in the province of Vinh Phuc benefits students' speaking skills.
