VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ________ ________ NGUYỄN thÞ h-êng THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT NGUYEN DANG DAO HIGH SCHOOL, BAC NINH PROVINCE (Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng hoạt động điền thông tin nhằm tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh lớp 10 trong giờ học nói ở trường THPT Nguyễn Đăng Đạo, Bắc Ninh) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.10 Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ________ ________ NGUYỄN thÞ h-êng THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT NGUYEN DANG DAO HIGH SCHOOL, BAC NINH PROVINCE (Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng hoạt động điền thông tin nhằm tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh lớp 10 trong giờ học nói ở trường THPT Nguyễn Đăng Đạo, Bắc Ninh) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60. Nguyễn Văn Độ Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research, and that it has not been submitted for any other degrees. Hanoi, September 20th, 2013 Signature Nguyen Thi Huong i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Assoc.
Nguyen Van Do, for the wholehearted guidance he gave me while I was doing this research. I am truly grateful to him for his ideas, comments and instructions, as well as encouragement and constant support. Without these, the thesis could not have been completed. I would also acknowledge my great gratitude to all the lecturers and organizers of the Faculty of Post- graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable assistance during my study at the college.
My special thanks are expressed to my friends for their great help and comments. Also, my attitude goes to my colleagues and ninety students taking part in my research. Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my family for their support, encouragement and love, which were extremely important for the completion of this thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study is majorly aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using information gap activities on grade 10th - students‟ participation for at Nguyen Dang Dao High School, Bac Ninh.
In order to achieve this aim, the quasi- experimental research was carried out in 8 weeks with classroom observation, students‟ self report and interview as data collection instruments. The sample of the study consisted of 90 grade 10th students from two intact classes. The experimental group received the intervention of information gap activities in four speaking lessons while the control one did not. The results indicated that experimental group‟s participation level increased significantly while the control group‟s stayed almost the same.
Hopefully, this study can raise teachers‟ awareness of using information gap activities in teaching speaking to enhance learners‟ involvement. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
viii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES. viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Purpose and significance of the study. Method of the study.
Scope of the study. Overview of the thesis. 3 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definitions of speaking .2 Importance of teaching speaking in FLT.3 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) .1 Notion and purposes of CLT .2 Characteristics of CLT .4 Characteristics of successful speaking activities.2 Information Gap Activities (IGA) .1 Definition of Information Gap Activity .3 Types of Information Gap Activities .4 Benefits of implementing IGA in teaching speaking. 9 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.1 Increasing students’ motivation to speak the target language.2 Ensuring students’ equal participation .3 Facilitating language acquisition .4 Improving students’ ability of negotiating meaning .5 The roles of teachers in IGA .3 Observer and learner .3 Students’ participation in speaking activities .1 Definition of students’ participation.2 Benefits of students’ participation .3 Factors affecting students’participation .1 Students’ personalities, language levels and motivation .2 Teachers’ roles, characteristics and methodology .3 Physical Classroom factors.1 The research method .2 Participants of the study .1 The teacher researcher.3 Samples for the control group and the experimental one.4 Samples for the interviews.3 Variables of the study .4 Data collection instruments.
18 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.1 Students’ interaction self-reports (Appendix B) .5 The intervention of IGA. 23 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Students’participation before the experiment .1 Students’ on- task behaviour in two observed lessons .2 Students’ interaction times in two observed lessons .2 Students’participation at the experimental stage .1 Students’ on task behaviour .2 Students’ interaction times .3 Comparison of participation levels of the experimental group before and during the experiment.4 Comparison of the control group’s participation level and the experimental group’s at the experimental stage.5 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the implementation of IGA in speaking lessons .3 Discussion on the findings .1 Summary of the study. 34 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.3 The limitations and suggestions for further study.I Appendix A: Observation sheet .I Appendix B: Students’ interaction self-report. III Appendix C: Questionnaire for experimental group.IV Appendix D: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.
V Appendix E : Speaking lesson plan (Experimental stage).VI Appendix F : Handouts, cards, pictures for the sample plan lesson. X vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. CLT Communicative Language Teaching 2. IGA Information Gap Activities 3.
FLT Foreign Language Teaching LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Table 1: Students' profile. 17 Table 2: The data collection proce. 23 Chart 1: On task time of the control and experimental group before the experiment. 25 Table 3: On task time of the experimental group during the experiment.
27 Chart 2: On task time of experimental group before and during the experiment. 29 Chart 3: On task time of the control group and the experimental one during the experiment 30 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale This research is carried out for the following reasons: the increasing important role of English in our present life, students‟ weakness in speaking skill, the reality of learners‟ poor participation and the motivation created by imformation gap activities(IGA) in speaking lessons. Firstly, it is undeniable that English has been playing a crucial role in our modern life.
It is the most effective means of global communication with a dramatic increase in number of users. It also shows progressive effects in various aspects of life. Anyone, no matter where he lives, is likely to be aware of the fact that having a good command of English helps him achieve the latest information on science and technology. Therefore, it is English that enables him to improve his study and work as well as betters his present life.
Secondly, Nguyen Dang Dao high school students seem to be worse at speaking skill than other English skills whereas being good at it enables them to get a good job in the local region. Nguyen Dang Dao high school is newly established and located in Tien Du district, where Tien Son industrial Park is located with a variety of factories and companies, many of which require employers‟ good command of English. Young people in the local province have the priority to be offered jobs provided that they can fulfill their requirements, one of which is English speaking skill. However, most students in Bac Ninh, after graduating from high school and even a university have difficulty speaking English in real situations.
In fact, learners‟ poor participation is one of the factors responsible for their low speaking proficiency. Most students at Nguyen Dang Dao School are reluctant to speak the target language because of the lack of motivation. Many of them keep silent or chat in speaking lessons while others make noise using their mother tongue. Therefore, language teachers should provide their learners with continuous motivation to use English in class and the use of information gap activities in 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com speaking lessons is an excellent solution to improving the quality of students‟ participation in oral lessons.
The application of information gap activities in English speaking lesson greatly encourages students to use the target language in class in some ways. First, in this activity, one person has certain information that must be shared with others in order to solve problem, gather information or make decisions. This gives the students opportunity to speak English for an extended period of time. In addition, speaking with peer is less intimidating than presenting in front of the entire class and being evaluated.
Another advantage of information gap activities is that students are forced to negotiate meaning because they must take what they are saying comprehensible to others in order to accomplish the task. Therefore, information gap activities are of great use in English speaking lessons. Making full use of these activities will definitely result in successful speaking lessons. The aforementioned reasons have urged the researcher to conduct the study entitled “The effectiveness of using information gap activities to promote grade 10 students’ participation in speaking lessons at Nguyen Dang Dao high school, Bac Ninh province”.
It is hoped that the research will provide a better view to the effectiveness of these activities on students‟ participation in speaking lessons. Purpose and significance of the study The study aims at: + investigating the effectiveness of using information gap activities on students‟ participation level in English speaking lessons. + Raising language teachers‟ awareness of exploiting these activities. The study can be beneficial to both students and teachers.
First, it enables teachers to confirm the importance of information gap activities in teaching speaking skills. Hence it promotes teachers‟ using of these activities in class, which creates a natural and highly motivational environment for students to speak the target language to their partners. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research Questions In order to achieve the above- mentioned purposes, the following research questions were formulated and needed to be answered: 1.
Does the implementation of information gap activities really increase grade 10 students’ participation in speaking lessons at Nguyen Dang Dao high school? 2. What are students and teachers’ attitudes towards IGA? 4. Method of the study The study was carried out using quasi- experimental research method with the use of classroom observation, questionnaires students‟ self- reports, and interviews as data collection instruments. Two intact classes were samples of the study.
Forty five students from class 10A5 were chosen for the control group while the same number of students from class 10A6 was the experimental group that receives the treatment of IGA. To collect data for the study, classroom observations were conducted together with students‟ self reports and interviews to confirm the information from observers. All the comments, remarks, recommendation and conclusions presented in the thesis were based on the analysis of the study. Scope of the study There are various activities for teachers to promote students‟ participation in classroom activities.
However, within the limitation of research time and the allowed length of a minor research, this study only focuses on exploring the effectiveness of information gap activities on 10 grade students‟ participation in speaking lessons at Nguyen Dang Dao High School, Bac Ninh. Overview of the thesis This study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.