VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ PHẤN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES IN ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL (Sử dụng các hoạt động đóng kịch để nâng cao động lực học tập và khả năng nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 tại Trường THPT Nam Cao) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Hanoi, 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THỊ PHẤN THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES IN ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL (Sử dụng các hoạt động đóng kịch để nâng cao động lực học tập và khả năng nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 tại Trường THPT Nam Cao) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60. Đỗ Tuấn Minh Hanoi, 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify my authority of the Study Project Report entitled “THE USE OF ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES IN ENHANCING 10TH GRADERS’ MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PERFORMANCE.
A CASE STUDY AT NAM CAO HIGH SCHOOL” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. Tran Thi Phan Hanoi, 2013 i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research thesis would not have been completed without the support of my supervisor, my lecturers, my colleagues, my students and my family members. First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr Do Tuan Minh whose expert guidance, vast knowledge of educational research and teaching experience greatly supported me during the time I carried out the thesis. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at the Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Their sincere support and considerations have enabled me to pursue and finish the course. I would also like to thank all the teachers at Nam Cao high school who kindly helped me to answer the survey questionnaire and give practical solutions. Appreciation is also extended to 90 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school for their patience and prompt responses to the questionnaires. Last but not least, I would like to thank, with all my heart, my family for encouraging me to finish this thesis.
ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT In recent years, mastering students’ oral communication is one of the ultimate goals of foreign language teaching. However, in the reality, the teachers and students from Nam Cao high school have problems in teaching and learning English speaking. This research was carried out to examine how the speaking skill of 10th graders at Nam Cao high school can be improved through using role play activities, and investigating the students’ attitudes toward using role play activities in teaching and learning English and the use of role play by teachers in teaching speaking skill as well. The findings of study showed that role play activities are an effective teaching technique which should be widely exploited in teaching and learning English speaking to enhance 10th graders’ motivation and speaking performance.
In short, it is hoped that this thesis will help to improve the teaching and studying of speaking skill at Nam Cao high school. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality of study project report. iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations.
vi Table of figures. vii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims and research questions. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study.4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT.5 CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW. Overview of motivation in language teaching. Definition of motivation.
The importance of motivation in language learning. Definition of speaking skill. Teaching speaking skill in Communicative Language teaching. Principles of teaching speaking.
The components of speaking skill. A succesful speaking lesson in classroom. Activities to promote speaking. Overview of role play.
Definition of role play. Types of role play. Stages of a standard role play. Significance of role play in teaching speaking.15 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………………………………………………….
Setting of the study. Participants of the study. General description of the curriculum of textbook Tiếng Anh 10. The curriculum and textbook Tiếng Anh 10.
Sections for speaking skills in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10. Procedures of data collecion. Procedures of data anlaysis.22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION………………………………. Data analysis and discussion from Phase 1………………………………………….
Data analysis from Phase 1…………………………………………………………23 3. Discussion from Phase 1……………………………………………………………27 3. Data analysis and discussion from Phase 2…………………………………………. Data analysis from students’ survey questionnaires……………………………….
Data analysis from teachers’ questionnaires………………………………………. Data analysis from classroom observation………………………………………. Discussion from Phase 2……………………………….33 PART III: CONCLUSION. Major findings of the study.
Limitations and suggestions for further studies………………………………………. I v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching T Teacher Ss Students N Number % Percent vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF FIGURES TABLES Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ opinions towards the importance of teaching and learning speaking skill Table 2: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill Table 3: Teachers’ and students’ evaluation towards speaking activities in the textbook English 10 Table 4: Students’ knowledge towards the term “role play” Table 5: Frequency of role play activities in speaking lessons Table 6: Results from students’ survey questionnaires Table 7: Teachers’ opinions towards the importance of role play activities in speaking lessons Table 8: Ways of motivating students to take part in role play activities Table 9: Teachers’ preparation for role play activities Table 10: Best time for teachers to implement role play activities in speaking lessons Table 11: Ways of organizing the class for role play activities in speaking lessons Table 12: Kinds of correction techniques used in giving feedback on students’ doing role-play activities Table 13: Teachers’ evaluation of students’ improvement in speaking ability after using role play activities Table 14: Teachers’ expectation towards integrating role play activities in speaking lessons CHARTS Chart 1: Language used by students in speaking lesson Chart 2: Teachers’ and students’ self-evaluation towards students’ speaking ability vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Nowadays, English has become one of the most important languages in the world. Especially in the globalization trend, it is spoken as a second language and an official language in many countries, and as a foreign language in the global world as well.
Almost all the people from many different countries around the world use it to communicate. At high schools in the whole country, English is now a compulsory subject for all students. In traditional teaching, students were required to acquire English grammar; however, nowadays in the light of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), they are required to acquire various skills and language items. In the international relationship, English speaking ability is very important for people to be able to integrate into the wide world.
The speaking skill is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language. Therefore, in some recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to respond to the students’ needs for effective communication and the ability to communicate in it efficiently has been the goal of every learner. However, how to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students at many high schools in Vietnam. Evidence shows that too many school students are unwilling to take part in speaking activities in class despite teachers’ efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills.
This may be caused by a variety of factors coming from teachers’ side, students’ side and others including classroom environment, types and contents of activities, etc. Among those factors, students’ lack of motivation has been considered as the important one. Motivation is one of the key issues in language teaching and it has long been believed to have a good impact on success or failure of a language learner. Skills and techniques to motivate students to practice the four basic skills, especially speaking skill, are essential for language teachers.
Thus, to motivate students in a speaking lesson, teachers often use a wide variety of communicative activities such as discussion, role-play, simulations, 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com information gap, jigsaw, etc. Among them, role play is regarded as a very typical and effective way to improve students’ speaking performance. According to Ladousse (1987), a role play uses different communicative techniques and develops fluency in the language, promotes interaction in the classroom and increases motivation. Role play can improve students' speaking skills in any situation, and helps them to interact.
As for the shy students, role play helps provide a mask, where students with difficulty in conversation are open minded. Besides, Jeremy Harmer (1986) advocates the use of role-play for the following reasons: - It's fun and motivating - Quieter students get the chance to express themselves in a more forthright way. - The world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world, thus offering a much wider range of language opportunities - Real situations can be created and students can benefit from the practice - Mistakes can be made with no drastic consequences From my point of view, it is of great importance to investigate the effectiveness of role-play activities in enhancing students’ motivation and speaking performance. That is the reason why I would really like to conduct a study on “The use of role play activities in enhancing 10th graders’ motivation and speaking performance.
A case study at Nam Cao high school”. It is hoped that the research will be a certain contribution to the improvement of teaching speaking skill for students at Nam Cao high school. Aims and research questions The study is conducted with the aim of investigating the use of role play activities in speaking lessons at Nam Cao high school. In details, the aims of the study are: - Explore the attitudes of students at Nam Cao high school towards applying role-play to speaking lessons.
2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - Investigate the use of role-play activities by teachers at Nam Cao high school in teaching speaking to 10th graders. - Investigate the effectiveness of role- play activities in enhancing motivation and speaking performance of 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school. The present study is designed to answer the following questions: 1. What are the attitudes of students at Nam Cao high school towards using role- play activities in a speaking lesson? 2.
How do teachers of English at Nam Cao high school teach speaking to 10th grade students with role play activities? 3. In what ways do role-play activities improve motivation and speaking performance of 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school? 3. Significance of the study The research is a great attempt to investigate the effectiveness of role-play activities in motivating 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school to participate in English speaking lessons. Once completed, it will be a useful source for those who are English teachers at high schools.
Moreover, this study provides teachers at Nam Cao high school suggestions to apply role-play activities successfully. Thus, the results of the research will make a great contribution to the improvement of teaching speaking skill for students at high schools. Scope of the study Although there are many different ways to motivate students in English speaking lesson, all these issues cannot be fully covered in this paper. Due to the limited time and the length of the study, the researcher only focuses on exploiting role-play activities as a way of motivating 10th grade students at Nam Cao high school in English speaking lessons.