VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES KACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDLES —-—wotac8Œ4—— NGÔ THỊ KHÁNH NGỌC USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS IN USSH, VNU. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOL, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES cas NGO THI KHANH NGOC USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS IN USSIT, VNU. Minor Programme Thesis Field: Knglish Teaching Mcthodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Cao Thúy HIỗng, M. HANOI 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table af contents Page Declaralion Acknowledgements Abstract.
Table of content Lists of tables, charts and abbreviations PART A: INTRODUCTION T. Rationale for the study TT. Aims and research questions bà 21. Research question ie) IIL Scopeof the study ow w IV.
Significance of the study Bow V1. Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Theoretical background and Literature review L Theoretical background Part 1: Information gap activities 11. Types of Information gap activities 1. Littlewood (1981)’s classification iv TT.
8cope of the study TGA bas benefited students in many aspects súch a3 cnỈmmec siudenls” speaking skill, promote students’ motivation, increase students’ talking time, build students’ confidence, etc. Due to the limited time, this study only focuses on the effect of IGA on students’ motivation and participation in the speaking class. Besides, the subject of this study is 60 students from two Linglish classes in University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) TY. Method In order lo achivve these aims, this quasi-cxperimental research cimployed both survey questionaires and classroom observation in order to collect data.
Participantswere divided into two groups: the centrol group and experimental group In the experimental group, teacher used information gap activities in speaking lesson. The control group was taught in the traditional way with the use of speaking tasks in textbook. The researcher observed two groups and delivered questionaires to collect data. ‘Then a comparison was made between two groups to find out the answer to the questions.
Significance of the study The study was carried oul with the hope to provide teachers of Bnghsh al USSH with a deeper understanding about benefits of using IGA in teaching speaking skill. In addition, it is hoped that the study will be of great use in helping teachers find an clleclive way to increase their studenls’ participation as well as motivate them to use Knglish in speaking lessons. PART A: INTRODUCTION L Rationale for the study It is obvious that nowadays English is becoming an international language, which is used worldwide for dhe purpose of communication. TL is English that helps us keep up with updated information about the surroundings and establish relations with foreign countries all over the world.
English is needed in various fields such as tourism, education, trade, science, cconomy and so on. In Victnam, English is taught as one of the compulsory subjects at senior secondary schools and universities. Among four main skills, speaking skill plays an important role im English teaching in the coniext of Viebwrn. Nunan (1991) emphasized that success im leaming a language is measured based on the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language.
For many students, speaking is by far the most important of the four skills ina second language in general and in English in particular However, many EFL students find this skill most difficult to obtain. Most Vietnamese leamers find it hard to use English to communicate in real life. One of the reasons may be the lack of environment for communicating. In most classes, students just come to class to listen to teacher’s lecture without any real communication in Lnglish.
The teacher may use some available speaking tasks in textbook, but most of them can’t create the real demand for communicating of students During my process of teaching, T realized some problems. Firstly, speaking is one of the weakest skills of Vietnamese students. This is partly due to their poor grammar and pronunciation, their lack of vocabulary, and partly because of their low motivation in speaking lessons, Secondly, students’ unwillingness to speak in speaking lesson can be the result of their lack ideas or the uninteresting nature of the speaking Duc to these above reasons, there is a requirement of some interactive techniques to improve students’ speaking skills and motivate them in learning. Tnformation-gap activities may be a good solution, According lo Dolf (1988), TGA are activities where leamers are missing some information and they need to complete a task and talk to each other to find it.
Information-gap activities give students reasons io speak, Tf the activilics are well- designed to reflect the real-life situations, they can not only motivate students to speak but also prepare students for real communication outside the classroom. AH of the above-mentioned reasons have urged the researcher to conduct the vesearch with the lille “Using Information Gep Activities ta promate students’ motivation and participation in speaking lessons for second-year students at USSH, VNU" Hopefully, this research will make a minor contribution to the implementation of Tnlormation Gap Aclivitics in improving speaking skills [or students at USSH. Aims and research questions 2. Aims The study is specially targeted at finding out the effect of IGA on the students’ imotivalion and.
participation in speaking lesson. Research question Regarding the goals of the study. the following rescarch questions arc put forward: 1. Can IGA help increase students’ motivation in the speaking lessons?If yes, to what extent? 2.
Can IGA help increase students’ participation in the speaking lessons? If yes, to what extent? LISTS OF TABLES, CHARTS AND ABBREVIATIONS List of tables: Table 3.1 Motivation in two groups in pre-interyention stage Table 3.2 Students’ times on task m (wo groups in pre-inlervention stage Table 1 Motivation of students in speaking tasks in the contral group Table 2 Motivation of students in speaking tasks in the experimental group Table 3 The data on the overall class motivation in the control group Table 4 The data on the overall class motivation in the experimental group Table S The data on the students’ on-task/off-task behavior in the control group ‘Table 6 ‘The data on the students” on-task/off-task behavior in the experimental group List of charts: Chart 1 Students’ motivation in the control group Chart 2 Students’ motivation in the experimental group Chart 3 Students’ motivalion in wo groups Chart 4 Overall class motivation in the control group Chart 5 Overall class molivalion in the experimental group Chart 6 The level of overall motivation m two groups Chart. 7 Students’ times on-lask/off-task behaviour i Lhe control group: Chart 8 Students’ times on-lask/oll-task behaviour int he experimental group Chart 9 Students’ times on-Lask in two groups List of abbreviations: IGA: Information gap activities USSIL University of Social Sciences and [humanities VNU: Vietnam National University ULIS: University of Languages and Intemational Studies vii 1. Benefits of information gap activities 1. Increase students’ talking time in class 1.
Promote students’ motivation 1. Promole students’ equal participation 1. Build studeris’ confidenee 1. Develop student's fluency and accuracy Part 2: Motivation 1 Definition kỳ 2 Types of motivation.
Assess students’ motivation kỳ ABehaviour of a highly-motivated student kè Part 3: Participation 31 Definition 3.2 ‘Types of participation 33. Asscss students” participation I. Literature review Chapter Il: Methodology 31 The context of the study 2.1 The teaching and learning conditions 2.The description of the material used 2. The students Data collection methods kv > Data collection procedure tà w 2.
While-intervention tới iy 2.6, Data analysis Chapter IL: Results and discussion 3.1, Data collected from the pre-intervention stage 3. Data collected [rom the while-micrvenlion slage 3. Students’ motivation in speaking lasks in Lwo groups 3. Data from the self-report, questionaire 3.
Data from the observation sheet 1 3. Students’ participation in speaking tasks ini two groups 3. Datla collected from observation sheet. Major findings of the study LL.
Limitations of the study LLL Suggestions for further studies 1V. Contributions of the studies REFERENCES APPENDICES VE. Organization of the study The thesis covers three main parts as follows: Part A is the Introductionprovides readers with overall information about the research including the rationale for the study, aims and research questions, significance, method, scope as well as the organization of the study. PartB is the Development which comprises three chapters Chapter I: Theoretical background and literature review deals with three auajor concepts, namely information gap activities, students’ motivation and perticipation in speaking activities with a hope to provide theoretical background for the following chapters.
Besides, a review of related studies is also presented Chapter IJ: Methodologypresents the methodsused to find out the necessary data for the study, including the background information of the context where the stully is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Besides, a detailed description of data analysis is presented. Chapter Il: Results and Discussion presents the findings of the study basing on the data mulysis and synthesis, Furthermore, some pedagogical inaptications are provided Part C is the Conclusion which summarizes the major findings of the paper, indicates lunitations of the rescarch and offers suggestions for further studics. The Referer and Appenciees include a hist of references that the researcher used for research, samples of questionaires, observation sheet and model lesson plans PART A: INTRODUCTION L Rationale for the study It is obvious that nowadays English is becoming an international language, which is used worldwide for dhe purpose of communication. TL is English that helps us keep up with updated information about the surroundings and establish relations with foreign countries all over the world.
English is needed in various fields such as tourism, education, trade, science, cconomy and so on. In Victnam, English is taught as one of the compulsory subjects at senior secondary schools and universities. Among four main skills, speaking skill plays an important role im English teaching in the coniext of Viebwrn. Nunan (1991) emphasized that success im leaming a language is measured based on the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language.
For many students, speaking is by far the most important of the four skills ina second language in general and in English in particular However, many EFL students find this skill most difficult to obtain. Most Vietnamese leamers find it hard to use English to communicate in real life. One of the reasons may be the lack of environment for communicating. In most classes, students just come to class to listen to teacher’s lecture without any real communication in Lnglish.
The teacher may use some available speaking tasks in textbook, but most of them can’t create the real demand for communicating of students During my process of teaching, T realized some problems. Firstly, speaking is one of the weakest skills of Vietnamese students. This is partly due to their poor grammar and pronunciation, their lack of vocabulary, and partly because of their low motivation in speaking lessons, Secondly, students’ unwillingness to speak in speaking lesson can be the result of their lack ideas or the uninteresting nature of the speaking Duc to these above reasons, there is a requirement of some interactive techniques to improve students’ speaking skills and motivate them in learning. Tnformation-gap activities may be a good solution, According lo Dolf (1988), TGA are activities where leamers are missing some information and they need to complete a task and talk to each other to find it.
Information-gap activities give students reasons io speak, Tf the activilics are well- designed to reflect the real-life situations, they can not only motivate students to speak but also prepare students for real communication outside the classroom.