'VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THUY NGA THE USE OF ROLE-PLAY ACTIVITIES IN IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF FIRST- YEAR CHEMISTRY-MAJORS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY Sứ dụng các hoạt động “đóng vai” trong việc cải thiện kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Công nghệ hóa- trường Tại học công nghiệp Hà Nội MLA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 1410 HANOI, 2011 'VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THUY NGA THE USE OF ROLE-PLAY ACTIVITIES IN IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF FIRST- YEAR CHEMISTRY-MAJORS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY Sứ dụng các hoạt động “đóng vai” trong việc cải thiện kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Công nghệ hóa- trường Tại học công nghiệp Hà Nội LA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: NGUYEN TH] BACH THAO, MLA. HANOI, 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Acknowledgements Abstract it Table of contents iv List of tables vi List of charts vii List of abbreviations CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION L.
Aims of the study wee 1. Soope of the study LA, Significance of the study 1. Method of the study www 1. Design of the study CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.
Communicative Language Teaching & Cooperative Learning eeanuny 2.1, Charactaristics of Communicative Language Teaching 2. Role-play in developing speaking skills 2. Whatis role-play? 2. Types of Role Pay and Procedures in Using Role Play 2.
Roles of Teachers and Students in role-play activities 17 2. Significance of Role Playin Developing Speaking Skills 2L CHAPTER HE THE STUDY Janguage, not Lnglish usage. in order to do this, leamers take on roles and interact with other Tear who also have roles. What they say is determined by the roles they play, their communicative intentions and the contribution of the other learners”, 2.4, Significance of Role Play In Developing Speaking Skills Role play is a technique which can develops students’ flucney in the target language, promotes students to interact with others in the classroom, increases motivation and makes the isaching-learning process more enjoyable CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.
Setting of the study ‘The stuty was conducted at Manoi University of Industry among first-years chemistry majors whose English competence is of mixed levels, Almost all of these students studied English at high school in traditional approaches which focus on grammar, vocabulary and reading. Thorofore their connnurdenlive comipoto Wc, especially spcaking is lirtited, 3.1 Type of research ‘This research is a survey research because it uses questionnaires to gather information. Participants The study was conduoled at Facully of Chemistry, Hanoi University of Industry. 360 sludents in total and iwenty (cachcrs were involved in the research.
Data collection instruments In order to collect sufficient, reliable, and valid information for the study, questionnaires and interview were employed 3.4, Data collection procedure Phase 1: all preparation for the dala collactions was made. Piloting is essential sinec il can indicate problems or potential pitfalls. Phase 2: the researcher had a direct interaction with the respondents and delivered questionnaires to them. Afler that, interviews wilh the participants were conducted in classrooms on campus.5, Dala analysis procerure Responses collected from different interviews were analyzed to compare interviewees’ opinions.
Discussion and comparison between the dala from the inlerviews and those: fromthe questionnaires were also made. All the data were presented in table and bar charts for better iHlusiration and explanations in a reader — friendly way to easily compare different variables in the same calegory. Results and Discussion 3.1, The current situation and participants’ attitude towards using role-play activitics in Lmproving speaking skills The results of the study rzvcal that students often have opportunitics to take part in role-play activities and different kinds of role-play are employed in speaking lessons. In general, role-play is popular lo bath students and teachers because it not only helps lo improve students’ speaking skills but also meets the đemand of lzarning English for communications.
However, teachers and students show different interest in different kinds of RP. While students are in favor of role-playing controlled trough cucs and information, teachers ofien prefer to use role-playing through cued dialogues. The reason may lie in the fact that role- playing controlled through cues and information is neither too easy nor too difficult to students so they find it interesting, whercas teachers may underestimate studonts* lovel in choosing role-playing through cued dialogues, The findings of the survsy also show thai when conducting role-play activities, m order to involve students in the activity, many teachers go round to check students’ performance and keep them on the right track, which is highly appreciated by the students. The teachers also help less able students by giving them some clues.
Ths direcl inlerviews with teachers indicale that checking students to ensue their going on the sight track can prevent any misunderstanding so that students can fulfil their tasks successfully. Phase 2: the researcher had a direct interaction with the respondents and delivered questionnaires to them. Afler that, interviews wilh the participants were conducted in classrooms on campus.5, Dala analysis procerure Responses collected from different interviews were analyzed to compare interviewees’ opinions. Discussion and comparison between the dala from the inlerviews and those: fromthe questionnaires were also made.
All the data were presented in table and bar charts for better iHlusiration and explanations in a reader — friendly way to easily compare different variables in the same calegory. Results and Discussion 3.1, The current situation and participants’ attitude towards using role-play activitics in Lmproving speaking skills The results of the study rzvcal that students often have opportunitics to take part in role-play activities and different kinds of role-play are employed in speaking lessons. In general, role-play is popular lo bath students and teachers because it not only helps lo improve students’ speaking skills but also meets the đemand of lzarning English for communications. However, teachers and students show different interest in different kinds of RP.
While students are in favor of role-playing controlled trough cucs and information, teachers ofien prefer to use role-playing through cued dialogues. The reason may lie in the fact that role- playing controlled through cues and information is neither too easy nor too difficult to students so they find it interesting, whercas teachers may underestimate studonts* lovel in choosing role-playing through cued dialogues, The findings of the survsy also show thai when conducting role-play activities, m order to involve students in the activity, many teachers go round to check students’ performance and keep them on the right track, which is highly appreciated by the students. The teachers also help less able students by giving them some clues. Ths direcl inlerviews with teachers indicale that checking students to ensue their going on the sight track can prevent any misunderstanding so that students can fulfil their tasks successfully.
Phase 2: the researcher had a direct interaction with the respondents and delivered questionnaires to them. Afler that, interviews wilh the participants were conducted in classrooms on campus.5, Dala analysis procerure Responses collected from different interviews were analyzed to compare interviewees’ opinions. Discussion and comparison between the dala from the inlerviews and those: fromthe questionnaires were also made. All the data were presented in table and bar charts for better iHlusiration and explanations in a reader — friendly way to easily compare different variables in the same calegory.
Results and Discussion 3.1, The current situation and participants’ attitude towards using role-play activitics in Lmproving speaking skills The results of the study rzvcal that students often have opportunitics to take part in role-play activities and different kinds of role-play are employed in speaking lessons. In general, role-play is popular lo bath students and teachers because it not only helps lo improve students’ speaking skills but also meets the đemand of lzarning English for communications. However, teachers and students show different interest in different kinds of RP. While students are in favor of role-playing controlled trough cucs and information, teachers ofien prefer to use role-playing through cued dialogues.
The reason may lie in the fact that role- playing controlled through cues and information is neither too easy nor too difficult to students so they find it interesting, whercas teachers may underestimate studonts* lovel in choosing role-playing through cued dialogues, The findings of the survsy also show thai when conducting role-play activities, m order to involve students in the activity, many teachers go round to check students’ performance and keep them on the right track, which is highly appreciated by the students. The teachers also help less able students by giving them some clues. Ths direcl inlerviews with teachers indicale that checking students to ensue their going on the sight track can prevent any misunderstanding so that students can fulfil their tasks successfully. in general, CL has heen proven to be effective for all types of students because it promotes Iearing and fosters respect and Gicndships among diverse groups of students.
Students in cooperative classrooms achieve many social and academic benefits as Slavin (1987) stated: “Cooperative classrooms are classrooms where students are likely to attain fagher levels of achievement, to increase time on task, to build cross-ethnic friendships, to experience enhanced self-esteem, to build life-long interaction and communication skills, and to master ihe habits of mind (critical, creative and selfregulated; needed to function as productive members of society. Role-play in developing speaking skills in defining role-play, the writer views that rofe play is a technique which involves fantasy or imagination to be someone cÌse or tơ be oursclvcs in a specific situation for a while, improvising dialogue and creating a real world in scenario, It aims at encouraging the students to think and creale, lets students develop and practice new language and belvioral skilis in a selatively non-threatening setting, and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for leaming to occur. Ta cas of role play aclivitigs, according to Byme (1986), role play can be grouped into two fons, scripted and unscripted role play. Holding different ideas from Byme, in dividing types of role-play, Littlewood (1981) reported that, role-play activilies can be categorized inlo four types ax follow: Role-playing controlled through cued dialogues, Role-playing controlled through cues and information, Role-playing controlled through situation and goals, Role-playing in the form of debate or discussion 2.
Roles of teachers and students in role-play activities In this kind of activities the teacher is less dominant but by no means less important than in the traditional classroom activitics, He is a facilitator of the communicative process in which he may play the roles of instructor of language items, organizer of the role-play activity, exror-corrector, passive viewer, and consultant. He may also take part in the role-play activities a a co-communivalor, or observ: the sludents’ performames for plaming futur activities. ‘The roles of students have changed since the invention of Communicative Teaching Approach. According to Morrow, (1977: 71), “the Icarncr is now couccmed with using ‘The above reasons have urged the author to conduct a study to gain more insight into the current situation of using classroom activilics with a focus on role-play tasks and try to draw some implications for using role-play to improve speaking skills for 1*-year students at the Faculty of Chemistry — [lanoi University of Indusuy (FC - aU).
It is hoped that this study will lay a foundation on which subsequent rescarch into this matter is bascd and developed. Aims of the study Eirstly, this research is camied out in order to investigate the reality of applying role- play activities in teaching speaking skills to 1*-year students at the Faculty of Chemistry Hanoi University of Industry. it is planned to explore students and teachers” attitude towards role-play activities as well as the difficultics in using these activities in improving speaking skills 1.
