VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------------------- LÃ THỊ HƯỜNG USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THẢO LUẬN NHẰM NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC VÀ TRÌNH ĐỘ NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------------------- LÃ THỊ HƯỜNG USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THẢO LUẬN NHẰM NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC VÀ TRÌNH ĐỘ NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Supervisor: Nguyễn Đức Hoạt, Dr Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work for the Degree of Master in TESOL at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or any other institution in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications. Lã Thị Hường Hà Nội 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Hoat for his helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study. Without his guidance and help, this work would not have been completed.
My sincere thanks go to all the staff at the Department of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master's course for providing me with valuable knowledge. I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students of class KT1713, whose participation in and dedication to the research remain invaluable have been acknowledged. Without their precious support, the thesis would not have taken shaped. I am also indebted to my colleagues at Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their enthusiastic assistance and co-operation.
Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been immeasurable. I would also like to express my thanks to my parents and my husband for their wholehearted encouragement. Ha Noi, December 29th 2013 La Thi Huong LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The study was carried out with an attempt to increase motivation and speaking proficiency of the second-year EFL students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology by using discussion activities. The subjects participating in the research were 14 second-year EFL students in Economics Faculty at Hanoi University of Business and Technology.
To achieve the desired aims of the study, an action research was carried out. Class observation and survey questionnaires for students were used to measure students' level of motivation before and after the implementation. Besides, to clearly see the change in students' speaking proficiency after applying discussion activities in speaking lessons, oral tests were also used as data collection method. The results of the study showed that discussion activities helped increase motivation of almost all of the students in speaking lessons.
In addition, the results also revealed that after using discussion activities in speaking lessons, some of the students could improve their scores in the post-test. Although there was not too much change, it was proved that discussion activities played a certain role in improving the students' speaking proficiency. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES: Table 1. Students' oral evaluation criteria.
The timetable of the action implementation. Students' speaking opportunities during speaking lessons. Students' comments on discussion activities. Results of Pre-test.
Results of students' speaking performance in the pre-test. Results of Post-test. Results of students' speaking performance in the post-test. Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral.
Students' levels of interest in English speaking lessons and discussion activities. Students' difficulties in learning speaking English. Students' preferences for types of discussion activities. Students' levels of motivation.
Students' levels of interest when participating in discussion activities. Students' preferences for discussion activities. Overall class motivation scores for all students. 37 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES. iv PART I: INTRODUCTION. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study. Aims of the study.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
The importance of teaching and learning speaking skill. EFL speaking processes. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity. Discussion and students' speaking proficiency.
The role of discussion in improving students' speaking proficiency. Types of Discussion Activities. Assessing speaking skill. Speaking proficiency testing criteria.
15 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Types of Motivation in language learning. Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning. Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speakinglessons.
20 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Setting and subjects of the study. Conducting preliminary investigation. Planning the action.
Choosing discussion activities. Preparing the discussion activities. Implementing the action. Observing the action.
Reflecting the action. Data collection instruments. Pre-test and Post-test. The reliability and validity of the tests.
30 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Levels of students' motivation. Pre-action questionnaire results. After action findings.
After action questionnaire findings. Class observation findings. 37 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Students' speaking proficiency.
Pre-test results. Post-test results. 41 PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Summary of major findings.
Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study. I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study One of the main purposes of studying English is to use it for communication.
According to O'Malley and Pierce (1996), among the four skills, speaking seems to be an important skill that learners should acquire. Therefore, to teach learners of English to be able to speak English well is said to be one of primary goals in learning the target language. However, for non-native EFL speakers it is not easy to communicate effectively in English because learners of English have to master many important elements of English including vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and comprehension. This requires teachers of English to apply creative teaching methods to the teaching and learning speaking skill so that they can motivate their students to take part in speaking activities and also increase their speaking proficiency.
At Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT), the teachers of English have used a lot of activities with the aim to increase motivation of their students and their speaking proficiency as well. Among the activities given in the course book namely "Market Leader - Pre-intermediate", discussion activities such as guessing, comparing, surveys or detecting differences are usually used in speaking classes. During the teaching and learning English speaking for the second-year EFL students, however, many problems arising have challenged the teachers and their students to their goal. The most apparent problem is that some students seem to have no or little interest in the discussion activities.
Some do not find the activities interesting enough; therefore, they do not join in the activities at all or just join them when they are asked to do. Even for some others who are willing to take part in the activities do not have enough vocabulary and background knowledge, or sometimes cannot work with friends to do a certain task effectively; therefore, they gradually lose interest in the discussion activities. Another problem is that some teachers use the same discussion activities in almost speaking classes 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com and do not change or create some more interesting ones, which may cause students' low interest. As a matter of fact, many of the students at the university are quite lazy and do not spend enough time learning English, especially speaking skill at home.
Besides, the students are always asked to do tasks in formal or informal cooperative groups in class only without any preparation before class. Because of the problems arising when using these above discussion activities, the researcher decided to choose two activities - debates and layout problems. The two activities were used with the aims to increase the students' self-study and their cooperative learning. The discussion activities may be more challenging than the others which have ever been used, but they are quite useful if students spend more time reading and searching for information before coming to class.
When taking part in the two activities, students are supposed to work both in formal cooperative groups and base groups. It means that besides participating in different groups as they are asked to do by the teacher in speaking class, they are often asked to join in a certain group at the beginning of the first semester. The students need to study by themselves and work together at home to fulfill the given tasks. In this way, students will be provided with an opportunity to develop long-term, mutually supportive relationships.
To improve the current situation of teaching and learning English speaking at the university, action research can be considered as more suitable because action research solves practical problems, classroom problems and for development of educational practices rather than experimental research which solves the practical problems by putting those into social psychological laboratory and finds out the real causes and remedies for those problems. Furthermore, because of the limit of time, by using action research the researcher could find out an immediate and quick solution of the problems. All these conditions, henceforth, offered the researcher a chance to conduct a study on "Using Discussion Activities to Increase Motivation and Speaking Proficiency of Second-Year EFL Students at Hanoi University of Business and 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Technology: An Action Research Study. Aims of the study The study aims at finding out whether discussion activities are used effectively in motivating the EFL second-year students at HUBT in learning speaking skill.
Besides, the study also investigates how discussion activities can increase speaking proficiency of the students. Research questions To fulfill the aims of the research, the two following research questions should be answered: 1. How effective are discussion activities in motivating the students in learning speaking skill? 2. To what extent, do discussion activities increase speaking proficiency of the students? 4.
Significance of the study It is hoped that the results of the study will provide the researcher as well as English language teachers with the understanding of discussion activities, students' motivation in speaking skill and their speaking proficiency. Secondly, the results of the study may be useful for teachers of English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology in particular and those in Vietnam in general to improve their speaking lessons, which in turn, may result in the improvement of their students' motivation in speaking skill and their English speaking proficiency. Scope of the study Discussion is one of the most effective speaking activities in speaking classroom. However, due to the limitation of time and human resources, this study only attempts to do research on a certain group of 14 second-year EFL students from the Faculty of Accounting at HUBT.