MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA – VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY ------------------------------------ DO THI ANH HONG THE USE OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN IMPROVING TEENAGERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT STAR-EDU ENGLISH CENTER IN VUNG TAU CITY MASTER’S THESIS Ba Ria – Vung Tau, March 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA – VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY DO THI ANH HONG THE USE OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN IMPROVING TEENAGERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT STAR-EDU ENGLISH CENTER IN VUNG TAU CITY MASTER’S THESIS Submitted to the Postgraduate Institute in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Course Code: 8140111 Academic Supervisor’s name: Assoc. Pham Huu Duc Ba Ria – Vung Tau, March 2023 THE USE OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN IMPROVING TEENAGERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT STAR-EDU ENGLISH CENTER IN VUNG TAU CITY MASTER’S THESIS Student’s name: Do Thi Anh Hong Student’s code: 20110144 Class: MTESOL20K6 Academic Supervisor’s name: Assoc. Pham Huu Duc Submitted to the Postgraduate Institute in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Course Name: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Course Code: 8140111 THE USE OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN IMPROVING TEENAGERS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT STAR-EDU ENGLISH CENTER IN VUNG TAU CITY Examination Committee 1. On behalf of the Examination Committee Chairman (Full name, title, signature) i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY Ba Ria Vung Tau, 30th March, 2022 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: DO THI ANH HONG Sex: Female Date of birth: 02nd April 1988 Place of birth: Lam Dong Major: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Student code: 20110144 I- Starting date: November 1st, 2021 II- Completing date: November 1st, 2022 III- Academic supervisor: Assoc.
Pham Huu Duc ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR FACULTY DEAN ii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: “The use of digital storytelling in improving teenager’s speaking skill at Star-Edu English Center in Vung Tau City” Ba Ria Vung Tau, March 30th, 2023 DO THI ANH HONG iii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, DO THI ANH HONG, being a candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, which accepts the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the library could be accessible for study and research purposes, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses. Ba Ria Vung Tau, March 2023 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Maybe only one student can stand for his result; however, it is definitely – always a collaboration of work attitude and effort. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Assoc.
Pham Huu Duc, who has supervised me in the long way of my thesis. Duc has guided me with his professional working effort, supported me and helped me a lot in writing this thesis. Secondly, I would like to thank the board of examiners who have read my thesis thoroughly and carefully in order to deliver the comments and suggestions for my future teaching career. Thirdly, I also would love to send my deeply grateful to the Director of Star-Edu English Center – Mrs.
Nguyen Thi Anh Dai, who gave me an opportunity to teach, to learn and to conduct my thesis research. Moreover, I am really happy and appreciate the teachers and students at the Center who have done all of my survey, questionnaire, tests and given responses to my interview during my duration of the science research and also delivered the efficient results to me. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family. It is their love and expectations that have motivated me to finish this thesis.
I am intensively thankful for all the assistance they have given. v ABSTRACT Creative stories always pique the interest of the listeners as all time and the novice mind can apply and learn challenging concepts in various domains. Stories have a “social-related” form that is known as human art form, which teaches about human experiences, weaves into the fabric of our lives in a meaningful and connected way. That is storytelling.
On the other hand, the application of technology in education is not new but the appropriateness and efficiency aspects of using technology is still in argumentation. This is because of the never-ending improvement of the application and the varied of them. After recruiting, examining, and learning about some of technological applications which are used for the improvement of teaching English or teaching a major in English. We identify the most appropriate tools that are easier and applicable for all Vietnamese students in every part of the country are power point slides, videos, and voice recording.
Thus, the combining of storytelling and technology definitely will convert to positive outcomes and that is the reason why I choose the topic is about telling a story that use a digital tool to encourage students learn to speak a foreign language with interesting and proactiveness attitude. Besides, discovering the impact of the digitized learning environment on our traditional distance education in changing the method in which teachers teach and learners learn in the present time. The findings also showed that the group of students have applied digital storytelling in their learning truthfully gain better results than the group was having traditional method of teaching. Such preliminary findings are hoped to shed light on the enhancement of learner speaking skills by integrating technology into English language teaching and learning.
Key words: teaching speaking skills, storytelling, effective speaking skill (ESS) vi Table of content CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. 6 RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. Rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the Thesis. Overview of information technology.
Overview of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Overview of digital storytelling. Overview of speaking skill. Teaching and Learning Speaking.
Speaking skills perspectives. Samples and sampling procedures. Self-Assessment Survey and Questionnaire. Speaking skill tests.
Semi-structured Interview. 43 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS. Difficulties of teenagers in leaning speaking skills .2 Current level of Speaking Skills .3 Current level of digital literacy skill .4 Improvement of teenagers’ speaking skills after employing. 63 CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION.
76 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Digital Learning Features. page 9 LIST OF MODELS Model 1. The theoretical framework.
page 32 LIST OF TABLES Table1. Score arrangement of communication skills p. Communication skills score range of students p. Communication skills score from students p.
Participating in class activity p. Participation in small-group activity p. Presentation with little pauses and hesitation p. Fluency in Presentation p.
Confident in speaking p. Researching online Skill p. Collaborate with team members p. Learning about digital instruments p.
Using digital instruments p. Using digital instruments to generate new ideas p. Achievement of comprehension p. Achievement of content p.
Achievement of pronunciation p. Achievement of fluency p. Achievement of vocabulary p. Achievement of performance p.
Achievement of presentation p. Improvement in participation p. Improvement in speaking ability p. Improvement in literacy skill p.
Digital storytelling learning continuing p. Improvement in oral proficiency p. Improvement in some speaking aspects p. Finding interest in listening p.
Finding interest in reading p. Finding active in class p. The effect of learning speaking English via digital storytelling p. The effect of learning literacy skill via digital storytelling p.
59 LIST OF ABREVIATIONS CALL Computer-Assisted Language Learning CMC Computer Mediated Communication ICT Information and Communication Technology L1 First Language L2 Second Language MALL Mobile-Assisted Language Learning TBL Task – Based Learning TELL Technology-Enhanced Language Learning TAR Technical Action Research 0 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study In the ancient world, a thing could turn the tide of war or announce the independence of a nation or have the power to change history. That is the example of Effective speaking skills (ESS). ESS and listening skills are both crucial as they could form an integral part of interpersonal communication (Goonj, 2020).
Moreover, these skills also play an acting character in increasing social and emotional learning. For example, having these skills at a class presentation or like a toast at a friend’s wedding or even an interview can always help you get through all these situations with ease (Goonj, 2020). Therefore, these skills can boost your confidence and win people’s heart and communication effectively. Due to globalization at the beginning of the 21st Era, English has been adopted as a second language in many countries.
Vietnam appears as in the top list of seeing the crucial features of English. Children go to schools and learn English. Students go to universities and learn English, and after their graduation, they go to work and use English since most companies ask them to speak English. As a result, there is the answer for the reason for learning English, especially speaking skill is significantly needed in the modern context.
As the consequence of the importance of having an international language like English as mentioned above, it is always necessary for Vietnamese people to use it effectively. As it can be seen, the ministry of education has realized this issue about the importance of English in Vietnam in the future. Therefore, English is a subject that has been applied in all national schools for more than 20 years. However, there are still many limitations that prevent students from using English fluently.
In modern life, speaking skills are “the belonging item” in launching iconic products or bringing back companies from the edge of bankruptcy. However, speaking skills were taken lightly, some people see that it was a natural talent although others emphasized that it should be acquired. English is taught not only at general educational 1 levels but also in most foreign language centers in a private sector (Le, 2011). Vietnamese English Teachers are having low self-esteem in teaching pronunciation, and they prefer to teach more about grammar and reading comprehension.
Moreover, English is not officially used in Vietnam, except in working or international environment. Therefore, Vietnamese people do not have favorable environments to practice or use English as those in other Southeast Asia countries like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippine. For the English education in Vietnam, although students are supposed to learn English in primary school, their ability of using English as a Vietnamese is not highly appreciated. Clearly, Vietnamese students always attach importance to grammatical structures, but most of them have not spoken or communicated in English since they were at primary schools.
Many research studies have showed that Vietnamese students are taught grammar more than speaking and just focus on exam, scoring more than using English in common. This study will illustrate general issues of learning speaking skills in English and the dramatic innovations that changing the ways of learning and teaching as applying digital literacy skills in obtaining speaking skills in language learning. Also, answering the question: “Are they really the panacea to solve some of the difficulties of our educational system which are caused by far-reaching educational paradigm shift?”. This paper might not indicate the achievements of technology in the fields of information and communication, but it does focus on teachers’ viewpoint in a pedagogical system and find out the didactic possibilities, opportunities and foreseeable disadvantages in teaching and learning language in Vung Tau City.
Obviously, Vietnamese students are good at grammar and vocabulary to help them communicate well. However, less speaking practice causes them to be unable to communicate in English. Most students always know the meaning of English words, but they hardly remember how to pronounce the words. And the fact that they are afraid to communicate is one of the big obstacles to improving their speaking skills.
Looking back at English education in Vietnam, learning speaking has more hours in primary school than it does in secondary school and high school.