‘VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITA NOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN TIT THU INEN USING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACTIING TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT DUC THIEN VOCATIONAL SCIIOOL (SỬ DUNG PHUONG PHAP DAY HOC GIAO NHIEM VU DE TANG CƯỜNG SỰ THAM GIÁ CUA HOC SINH TRONG CAC GIO HỌC NÓI: NGTITEN CUU TANTEDONG TAI TRUONG TRING CAP DUC TITER) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language tcaching methodalogy Code: 60 1410 HANOI — 2013 ‘VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITA NOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN TIT THU INEN USING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACTIING TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT DUC THIEN VOCATIONAL SCIIOOL (SỬ DUNG PHUONG PHAP DAY HOC GIAO NHIEM VU DE TANG CƯỜI ' THAM GIÁ CỦA HỌC SINH TRÔNG CÁC GIO HOC NÓI NGTITEN CUU TANTEDONG TAI TRUONG TRING CAP DUC TITER) MLA, MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Dr. Duong Thi Nu TIANOI - 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declarant. eee cesses sees rieeeneeeeineesnee Acknowledgements .0:ssccccssessescsveseesieenees Abstract Table of contents iv List of abbreviations 1.
eee vii List of tables and charts viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study 2. Aim and objectives of the study 2 3. 8oope oÊ the suổy.
Methods of the siudy 6. Significance of the study. Design oŸ the shudy. sec PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chaptcr 1: Litcrature rcvicw.
What is speaking? đà 1. ‘The importance of speaking skill in learning language 1. Student participation uw 1. What is student participation? wu 1.
Factors affectng student participation in speaking class. Students’ leaming styles 1. Teachers’ teaching techniques.4 Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics 1. Task-basod language leaching (TBI.
Rationale of the study English has been extensively studied and taught in Vietnam for decades. Tlowever, there exists some weakness in the teaching and leaming of the speaking skill in non-English major courses al vocational schools, colleges and universities. I realize that most of students have many problems in learning this skill. It is due to the fact that the common teaching approach applied is teacher-centered and lecture- oriented, which normally resulis in learner passiveriess and nion-involvement.
in Lnglish speaking activities. Since I started teaching at Dic Thién vocational school, I have always been trying wy besl lo help my studenls speak betier. However, T have bad many frustrations because my students are always inactive in speaking lessons. In fact, at the beginning of each new course, teachers of English at DTVS always make as many offorts as possible to icach speaking skill earclully.
Even though the students are really encouraged by the teachers, their participation in speaking lessons is very poor. This problem leads Lo the fact that the teachers oflen omil or teach speaking lessons perfunctorily to spend time teaching other parts in umts so that their students can pass the final exam well. Although the students are not required to take any Enghsh speaking communicative skill is very important for their future jobs. How to help students become more active and participate in speaking lessons better, it is really a big question for me and my colleagues In some recent years, many modern approaches have been applied.
‘I'ask-based language teaching has been preferably applied in teaching languages with the hope to achieve the expected communicalive results. Thanks to lectures on English language teaching methodology delivered in my master course, | understand about and really felt interested in TBLT. Richards and Rodgers (2001:228) asserted that “Tasks aro belioved to foster process of negoliation, modification, rephrasing, and experiment that are heart of second Janguage learning”. Besides, Nunan (2005) argues that “task-based teaching does provide a flexible, functionally compatible and contextually sonsilive approach for many tcachers, as well as learners” ‘Therefore, the research “Using task-based language teaching to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons: An action research at Ditc Thién Vocational School” was conducted in the hope of solving the problem in my school’s teaching context.
Aim and objectives of the study The study is designed with an aim Lo increase sludenis’ participation in speaking lessons at D''VS by using task-based language teaching. Specifically, it has three objectives: - To find possible explanations for the poor participation of the students - ro justify the effect of task-based language teaching on students’ participation. Whal are possible reasons (hat load to students’ participation in speaking lessons? 2. ‘fo what extent does task-based language teaching help increase students’ parlicipalion in speaking lessons? 4.
Scope af the study ‘The study concentrates on communicative tasks that students are assigned in English speaking lessons, which result in increasing the participation of first-year students’ at D'I'VS. Within its scope, the research was aimed at justifying the extent of class activity participation improvement of the students §. Methods of the study ‘This study is conducted as an action research because action researeli is the best choice for the purpose of investigating students’ difficulties in learning speaking and improving the students’ parhieipation in speaking lessons. In order Lo get data, a combination of different instruments, namely class observation, informal interviews and questionnaire, is used.
The data collected from the observation and bà PART A 1. Rationale of the study English has been extensively studied and taught in Vietnam for decades. Tlowever, there exists some weakness in the teaching and leaming of the speaking skill in non-English major courses al vocational schools, colleges and universities. I realize that most of students have many problems in learning this skill.
It is due to the fact that the common teaching approach applied is teacher-centered and lecture- oriented, which normally resulis in learner passiveriess and nion-involvement. in Lnglish speaking activities. Since I started teaching at Dic Thién vocational school, I have always been trying wy besl lo help my studenls speak betier. However, T have bad many frustrations because my students are always inactive in speaking lessons.
In fact, at the beginning of each new course, teachers of English at DTVS always make as many offorts as possible to icach speaking skill earclully. Even though the students are really encouraged by the teachers, their participation in speaking lessons is very poor. This problem leads Lo the fact that the teachers oflen omil or teach speaking lessons perfunctorily to spend time teaching other parts in umts so that their students can pass the final exam well. Although the students are not required to take any Enghsh speaking communicative skill is very important for their future jobs.
How to help students become more active and participate in speaking lessons better, it is really a big question for me and my colleagues In some recent years, many modern approaches have been applied. ‘I'ask-based language teaching has been preferably applied in teaching languages with the hope to achieve the expected communicalive results. Thanks to lectures on English language teaching methodology delivered in my master course, | understand about and really felt interested in TBLT. Richards and Rodgers (2001:228) asserted that “Tasks aro belioved to foster process of negoliation, modification, rephrasing, and interviews will be analyzed by qualitative method, and the data collected through the questionnaire will be analyzed by quantitative method.
Significance of the study ‘The study is an attempt to the concem of teachers and administrator who take responsibility of the course quality and students’ learning. From the findings of the study, teachers and administrator can decide whether or not task-based language teaching should be used for teaching English at DEVS in future. This new method may become the positive solution to the students’ poor participation in learning not only speaking skill bul also other skills 7, Design of the study The study consists of three main parts as follows » ‘The first part, Introduction, deals with rationale, purposes, research questions, scope, methods, significance and design of the study. © The second part, Development, contains three chapters, in which chapter 1 reviews the hterature focusing on the theoretical basis related lo task-based language teaching and speaking skill, chapter 2 presents a detailed description of the research methodology, and chapter 3 discusses the findings of the study ® The final part, Conclusion, recapitulates all the main points discussed throughout the thesis, provides pedagogical implications and suggests further research orientations.
What is of TBUT2. What is task within I3LT7.4, A framework for TBLT Implementation 0. ccc cee ese 10 1. Previous studies relating to applying TBLT in teaching speaking skill.
Summary 12 Chapter2: Methodology. An overview of action research. Rationale for the use of an action research 14 2. Description ofthe context of the research .1, The current method of English language teaching at DTVS 1s 2.
The (caching program and materials. Desoription of the research. Subjects of the research 17 2. Data collection imstruments: 1? 2.
The action procedures. Dala analysis procedures a 2. Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion. Analysis of questionnaire 233 3 1.
Skudents' atitudes towards spealcing skkil. Stuđents` participation in speaking class. Students’ motivations and learning styles.4, Students’ difficulties in learning speaking skill,. 55: 26 4, Students’ opinions on speaking activities in the textbook 26 3.6, Teacher’s leaching methods in speaking clas 2 3.
Students’ preferences and suggestions to increase their participation in speaking lessons 38 3. Analysis of obscrvalion 29 experiment that are heart of second Janguage learning”. Besides, Nunan (2005) argues that “task-based teaching does provide a flexible, functionally compatible and contextually sonsilive approach for many tcachers, as well as learners” ‘Therefore, the research “Using task-based language teaching to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons: An action research at Ditc Thién Vocational School” was conducted in the hope of solving the problem in my school’s teaching context. Aim and objectives of the study The study is designed with an aim Lo increase sludenis’ participation in speaking lessons at D''VS by using task-based language teaching.
Specifically, it has three objectives: - To find possible explanations for the poor participation of the students - ro justify the effect of task-based language teaching on students’ participation. Whal are possible reasons (hat load to students’ participation in speaking lessons? 2. ‘fo what extent does task-based language teaching help increase students’ parlicipalion in speaking lessons? 4. Scope af the study ‘The study concentrates on communicative tasks that students are assigned in English speaking lessons, which result in increasing the participation of first-year students’ at D'I'VS.
Within its scope, the research was aimed at justifying the extent of class activity participation improvement of the students §. Methods of the study ‘This study is conducted as an action research because action researeli is the best choice for the purpose of investigating students’ difficulties in learning speaking and improving the students’ parhieipation in speaking lessons. In order Lo get data, a combination of different instruments, namely class observation, informal interviews and questionnaire, is used. The data collected from the observation and bà 3.
Nhmber of students participating in spenking lessoni. Students` speaking turns. Students’ quality of participation 31 3. Data from Observation sheet 1.
ccc esses esceseee 32 3. Data from Observation sheet 2. Analysis of interview 35 3. Students’ attitudes towards applied tasks and TBLT.
Students’ difficulties in task-based speaking lessons 36 3. Students’ suggestions for belter implementing lask-based lessons.4, Discussion of the research questions. Summary 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 40 1. cece cesta cess eenee.
Limitations of the study 41 3. Suggestions for further rescarch 41 PART D: REEERENCES. c0 0011122101022 cree — 1V Appendix 3 VI nh.ccccccccccsssssessessssssssssssssaseessseseeee — Ix Appendix 6 x1 HE. XV vi experiment that are heart of second Janguage learning”.
Besides, Nunan (2005) argues that “task-based teaching does provide a flexible, functionally compatible and contextually sonsilive approach for many tcachers, as well as learners” ‘Therefore, the research “Using task-based language teaching to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons: An action research at Ditc Thién Vocational School” was conducted in the hope of solving the problem in my school’s teaching context.
