HONG DUC UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE GRADUATION THESIS THE EXPLOITATION OF AUTHENTIC TASKS IN SPEAKING CLASSES FOR STUDENTS AT LE HOAN HIGH SCHOOL Supervisor : Le Thi Thanh Huong, M.A Student : Le Thi Nhu Class : K20A – FFL – HDU Course : 2017 - 2021 Thanh Hoa, May 2021 1 DECLARATION I hereby state that I Le Thi Nhu, student of the Faculty of Foreign languages – Hong Duc University, certify my authorship of the study entitled “The Exploitation of Authentic Tasks in Speaking Classes for students at Le Hoan high school”. The thesis is the study of my own research and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions. ThanhHoa, May,2021 Le Thi Nhu I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude and love to my supervisor, Ms. Le Thi Thanh Huong, M.A, for her invaluable advice and especially her sympathy throughout the whole research process.
My special thanks go to all teachers of Le Hoan high school, for their assistance during the time I was completing my thesis. I would like to take this opportunity to send my love to my family, especially my mother who has been encouraging and supporting me whole-heartedly. They are the driving force for me to fulfill the thesis on time. Last but not least, I would like to thank all those who read and commented this work in manuscript.
I also look forward to receiving any valuable contributions from anyone who concern. II ABSTRACT With an investigation into the reality of exploiting authentic task in speaking classes at Le Hoan high school, this descriptive study is aimed at finding out the teachers’ perceptions of the exploitation of authentic tasks, the extent to which tasks are exploited in their actual speaking classes. Also, some difficulties as perceived by the teachers when they exploit authentic tasks in English speaking lessons. Accordingly, some suggestions for effective exploitation of authentic tasks are given in the pedagogical implications.
These aims are the driving force for the researcher to conduct this study. In order to gain reliable findings, the triangulation of three instruments including survey questionnaire, informal interviews and classroom observation, were employed. Some significant findings of the study have been revealed. First of all, a great deal of the teachers had favorable perceptions of tasks, task-based language teaching as well as the exploitation of authentic tasks in speaking lessons.
Secondly, in practice, almost no authentic tasks were exploited by the teachers in speaking classes. Last but not least, some certain difficulties faced by the teachers have been found out in their exploitation of tasks in speaking classes. Recommendations were then given to help the teachers exploit authentic tasks effectively. It is the great ambition of the researcher that this study will function as a useful reference for teachers of English who take interest in the subject matter.
Correspondingly, authentic tasks will be exploited in their real teaching effectively. III TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration ………………………………………………………. II Abstract …………………………………………………………… III Table of contents …………………………………………………. IV List of abbreviations ……………………………………………… VI List of figures, tables and charts ………………………………… VII PART A: INTRODUCTION …………………………………….
Rationale for the Study…………………………………………. Aims of study …………………………………………………… 2 3.Significance of the Study………………………………………… 3 5. Scope of the Study ………………………………………. Methods of the Study…………………………………….Design of the Study ……………………………………………… 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………….
4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………. Communicative Language Teaching………………………. Concepts of CLT………………………………. Main characteristics of CLT …………………………….
An overview of Task-based Language Teaching…………. Definitions of a task ……………………………………. Components of a task ……………………………. Types of tasks…………………………………………… 8 1.
General types of tasks……………………………. Authentic tasks versus pedagogical tasks………. Definitions of TBLT……………………………………. Task-based Learning Framework……………………….
Benefits of Task-based Language Teaching to learners… 13 1. Challenges of implementing TBLT …………………. Definitions of speaking skill……………………………. Teaching speaking skill in TBLT ……………………….
Authentic tasks in speaking classes ………………………. Common types of authentic tasks………………………. Criteria to identify authentic tasks………………………. Teaching and learning facilities ………………………… 22 2.
English Course book for students……………. Selection of the Participants…………………………………. Procedure of data collection ………………………………… 26 2. Procedure of data analysis ………………………………….
27 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ……………. Conclusive remarks ………………………………………… 42 PART C: CONCLUSION ……………………………………… 43 1. Summary of the study ………………………………………… 43 2. Limitations and suggestions for further research………….
48 APPENDICES …………………………………………………… I Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire for teachers…………………. I Appendix 2: Informal Interviews for teachers…………………… VI Appendix 3: Sample of Task-based Speaking Lesson …………… VII Appendix 4: Classroom Observation sheets……………………… IXI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TBLT: Task-based Language Teaching TBL: Task-based Learning CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CC: Communicative Competence CA: Communicative Approach VI LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS Page Figure 1: A framework for analyzing communicative tasks…………… 8 Figure 2: Task-based Learning Framework…………………………… 11 Table 1: Common types of authentic tasks …………………………… 18 Table 2: Teachers’ profiles…………………………………………… 23 Table 3: Teachers’ perceptions of speaking skill and the exploitation of authentic tasks in speaking classes…………………………………… 31 Chart 1: Teachers' perceptions of tasks & TBLT……………………… 28 Chart 2: Teachers' perceptions of authentic tasks……………………… 30 Chart 3: Teachers' perceptions of benefits of authentic tasks………. 33 Chart 4: Teachers’ ways of dealing with speaking activities in the text book…………………. 35 Chart 5: Teachers' favorite techniques embedded in exploiting authentic tasks……………………………….
38 Chart 6: Students’ response to the tasks as perceived by the teachers…. 39 Chart 7: Teachers' difficulties in exploiting authentic tasks to teach speaking………………………………………………………………. 41 VII 0 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the Study Speaking is regarded as one of the key outputs for English learners.
Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems the most important one. Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech would therefore seem an important component in any language courses. People are not able to communicate in English if they cannot deliver their messages and make themselves understood. Many Vietnamese students, especially at Le Hoan high school, learn English as their foreign language without their motivation since they have few opportunities to practice communicating in the target language.
It is understandable that they have hardly learnt English as a tool of communication but a university subject. In many school as well as in Le Hoan high school, English is normally taught for students to help them deal with tests, exams rather than for communication. Grammar-oriented teaching methods seem to be prevalent in most language classes. Therefore, English skills though scheduled in the textbooks, are not paid much attention to.
Students are supposed to learn English by exercise completion, but not gaining much for using English as a tool of communication. In recent years, the communicative approach in language teaching has become more and more predominant. However, the real outcomes prove to be a matter of concern of all language teachers and learners. The fact is that a lot of learners’ linguistic performance is quite good in class learning, but when they engage in real-life communication in which the target language is used, they seem to be hindered by many factors such as lack of communication skills, inappropriate responses and so on.
They really find it difficult to express with a “real” situation. Such matters may rest with many reasons including classroom methodology, teaching materials, teacher’s proficiency as well as speaking activities. Among which, speaking activities play the crucial role in motivating and getting students involved in the lesson, then in helping them achieve the goal of using the target language in real-life communication. Things considered, English teachers share an agreement that it is essential to exploit communicative speaking activities which are close to real life situations with hope to overcome these current situations.
In an attempt to grapple with the problem, the use of 1 Task- based mothod has been recommended in teaching speaking at Le Hoan high school. In the literature, there were few studies related to exploitation of authentic task tasks in teaching speaking despite numerous studies were implement on TBLT. What’s more, no previous studies have been conducted about the exploitation of authentic tasks in English speaking classes at the university where the author is teaching. All of the mentioned conditions, henceforward, have paved the way for the author to carry out a research on “The Exploitation of Authentic Tasks in Speaking Classes for sudents at Le Hoan high school ”.
It is conducted in an attempt to address the gap in the literature and to offer an insight of the reality of teaching speaking with the exploitation of authentic tasks to students at Le Hoan high school. Additionally, some suggestions of exploiting authentic tasks effectively to teach speaking skills will be given with the hope of providing useful source and reference for teachers at Le Hoan high school in particular and for all teachers of English in general to motivate their dear students in English speaking lessons. Last but not least, it is expected that the research would make a certain contribution to the improvement of teaching speaking skills for the 10th and 11 th form students at Le Hoan high school. Aims of study This study is carried out with the wish of achieving following aims: - To investigate the teachers’ perceptions of the exploitation of authentic tasks in English speaking classes - To find out the extent to which authentic tasks are exploited in TBL framework in English speaking lessons - To explore the difficulties as perceived by the teachers when they exploit authentic tasks in English speaking lessons 3.
Research question In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions were raised: 1. What are the teachers’ perceptions of the exploitation of authentic tasks in teaching speaking? 2. To what extent are authentic tasks exploited in TBL framework in English speaking classes by the teachers? 2 3. What are the challenges as perceived by the teachers when authentic tasks are exploited in speaking classes? 4.
Significance of the Study This study helps point out the teachers’ perceptions towards authentic tasks and its exploitation in teaching speaking skills. Particularly, this study is carried out with the hope to provide an insight into current teaching situation in English speaking lessons to teach students at Le Hoan. Hopefully, the findings and recommendations of this study will be of some help for both teachers and students of English in the process of teaching and learning speaking skills. The results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field.
Scope of the Study Due to time constraint as well as the author’s ability and working conditions, the study is restricted to mention the exploitation of authentic tasks in teaching speaking. Furthermore, perceptions and exploitation of authentic tasks are revealed on the part of teachers who have been teaching students at Le Hoan in the school year 2020-2021 6. Methods of the Study To reach the aims of this study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are made used of. Data are collected from questionnaire, informal interviews and classroom observation.
The quantitative data collected from survey questionnaire were then analyzed statistically, while qualitative data were obtained from informal interviews and class observation. Informal interviews were carried out to supplement the survey questionnaire. Class observation is employed to get better insight of the reality of exploiting authentic tasks in speaking lessons. The validity of the study is ensured with the main instrument classroom observations.
Hopefully, with the combination of the three methods, the study would yield reliable and valid findings. Design of the Study The thesis consists of three main parts: the Introduction which provides an overview of the study, the Development which is the main part and consists of 3 chapters, and the Conclusion which includes summary of the study, implications, limitations and suggestions for further study. Three chapters in the main part are as follows: 3 - Chapter 1: Literature review sets up theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study.