VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT TRẦN THỊ HẢO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEBATE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT GRADE NINE OF OXFORD CENTER) Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng các thủ thuật tranh luận để thúc đẩy khả năng nói của học sinh (Một nghiên cứu hành động ở học sinh khối 9 tại trung tâm Oxford) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT TRẦN THỊ HẢO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEBATE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL (A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT GRADE NINE OF OXFORD CENTER) Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng các thủ thuật tranh luận để thúc đẩy khả năng nói của học sinh (Một nghiên cứu hành động ở học sinh khối 9 tại trung tâm Oxford) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Mai Thị Loan. PhD HANOI - 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: “The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill (A classroom action research at grade nine of Oxford center)” is the result of my own work for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi National University.
The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other courses of study. Hanoi, November 2015 Signature Trần Thị Hảo i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am, first of all, greatly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Ms. Mai Thi Loan, for encouraging me to complete this work. Without her valuable instructions, comments, criticisms and corrections, this research would have been made impossible.
My appreciation and gratitude are also extended to all my colleagues, students at Oxford Center who have stimulated and guided my thinking during the time I did this research. Last but not least, I owe a big debt to my loved family who always stand by me as well as give me strength and encouragement during my course and during the time I fulfilled the research. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT There is no doubt that speaking skill is one of the essential skills in teaching and learning English. Nowadays, a lot of students have difficulty in learning speaking skill.
From this fact, the thesis was conducted to evaluate whether the activity called “debate technique” could help the student improve their speaking level. The material that the researcher chose was “Solutions – Intermediate Student’s book”. This book is in current use for the grade nine at Oxford center. The data collection instruments employed in this study were tests (pre-test and post-test), questionnaire for students and questionnaire for teachers.
These tests helped researcher to find out how far the implementation could help students improve their speaking skill. In addition, the questionnaires helped the author find out the effective ways that debate technique should be conducted. Research findings have indicated that after applying debate technique, the students’ speaking score increased significantly. Based on the findings, the suggestions would be given for better application of the use of debate technique in speaking lessons.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. L2: Second language iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Raw marks in speaking test (pre-test) .22 Chart 2: Raw marks in speaking test (post-test) .24 Chart 3: Students’ attitude towards debate technique .26 Chart 4: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the implementation of debate technique.27 Chart 5: Steps students follow during speaking lessons .28 Chart 6: Students’ favorite debate style in speaking lessons .29 Chart 7: Teachers’ frequency of implementing debate technique to teach speaking skill32 Chart 8: Students’ improvement after they had been taught with the use of debate technique .33 Chart 9: Teachers’ choice about debate style in speaking lessons .34 Chart 10: The steps that teachers conduct a debate activity .34 Table 1: Frequency distribution (pre-test) .22 Table 2: Mean and Std.23 Table 3: Frequency distribution (post-test) .24 Table 4: Mean and Std.25 Table 5: The effectiveness of debate technique in speaking lessons .30 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT Candidate’s statement. iii List of abbreviations. iv List of charts and tables.
v Table of content. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study.
3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Concept of speaking .1 Definition of speaking .2 Characteristics of a speaking lesson .2 Concept of debate .1 Definition of debate.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using debate technique in speaking. 9 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY.1 Overview of action research.2 Rationale for the use of an action research. Description of the context of the research .1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at Oxford center.2 The teaching program and material.
13 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Description of the research.2 Data collection instruments .4 Data collection procedures .5 Data analysis method .6 The use of debate technique in the speaking lessons. 17 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .4 Data analysis and finding .2 Questionnaire for students.1 Students’ attitude towards debate technique .2 The improvement of students’ speaking skill after they had been taught through implementation of debate technique .3 Steps students follow during speaking lessons .4 Students’ favorite debate style in speaking lessons .5 The effectiveness of implementation of debate technique in speaking lessons .6 Some disadvantages of implementation of debate technique in speaking vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.3 Questionnaire for teachers.1 Teachers’ frequency of implementing debate technique to teach speaking skill .2 The improvement of students’ speaking skill after they had been taught with the use of debate technique .3 Teachers’ choice about debate style in speaking lessons .4 The steps that teachers conduct a debate activity .5 Difficulties when designing a speaking lesson with implementation of debate technique. 35 PART III: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS.
Limitations of the research. Suggestions for further studies. II Appendix 3A: Survey questionnaire for students. III Appendix 3B: Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng thủ thuật tranh luận để thúc đẩy kĩ năng nói của học sinh.
V Appendix 4: Survey questionnaire for teachers. VII Appendix 5: A sample lesson plan. VIII Appendix 6: The formula of mean, standard deviation and median. X viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study English is considered a compulsory subject in almost schools in Vietnam from primary schools to universities and has gained its significance among various foreign languages in the world. One of the main goals when teaching a foreign language (FL) now is to promote students’ communicative competence especially in the context of industrialization and modernization. The communicative competence is carried in both oral and written form; however, in many aspects of life, “speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbol in a variety of context” (Chancy, 1998:13). A good oral communicative competence may be paid more attention to than written ability.
It is obvious that being able to speak English brings more opportunities for students in their study as well as in the future career prospect. At Oxford Center, the students are taught four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking skill. The problem is that, due to the demand of examinations, students’ focus is on grammar and when being transferred to the high school, students may lack speaking skill which is one of the most important areas in learning English. Students also may have some difficulties in communicating using English such as fears of public speaking or being passive in speaking lessons and so on.
It is really important for the teacher to find out the effective techniques to help students improve speaking skill There are several techniques to be used to teach speaking skills. One of the techniques in teaching speaking skill is debate technique. It is seen as an active learning process because students will learn more through a process of constructing and creating, working in a group and also sharing knowledge. Based on the explanation above, the researcher decides to conduct a research on “The implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill.” 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at applying debate technique to improve the students’ speaking skill. To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to: - To measure the improvement of students’ speaking skill after the implementation of debate technique. - To find out the effective ways of using debate technique to teach speaking skill for Oxford Center’s students. Research questions In order to reach the above aims and objectives, the study is going to seek answers for the following research questions: How far does the use of debate technique improve the students’ speaking skill at the grade nine of Oxford Center? How should the debate technique be implemented to improve the students’ speaking skill? 4.
Scope of the study The theory of English teaching speaking is complex comprising a number of components. However, the research focuses on the implementation debate technique to improve the students’ speaking. It was conducted among nine-grade students at Oxford Center. Significance of the study In terms of theory, the author expected to contribute the effective ways to teach English speaking skill.
The study is hoped to raise teachers’ awareness of the implementation of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill. In terms of practice, the findings of this study can be used as a reference for teachers of English in general and teachers at Oxford Center in particular to improve their teaching. Methods of the study The data serving the research analysis and discussion will be collected by means of: - Pre-test and post-test for both experimental and control groups; - A survey questionnaire for experimental group; - A survey questionnaire for teachers of English at Oxford Center. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Design of the study The study will be divided into three parts: Part 1: Introduction shows rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope, significance, methods and design of the study. Part 2: Development includes three chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review deals with some theoretical background of teaching and learning speaking, knowledge of debate and previous studies Chapter 2: Research methodology focuses on the research method-action research, action research procedure for this study, the current situation of teaching and learning at Oxford Center, participants of the study, data collection instruments and data collection and analysis procedure. Chapter 3: Data analysis This chapter provides an analysis of the collected data in the action stage: tests ( pre-test and post-test), questionnaires for students and questionnaire for teachers. Part 3: Recommendations and conclusion summaries the results of the study.
Recommendations and limitations of the study are also pointed out. Finally, some suggestions for further studies are presented. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Concept of speaking 1.1 Definition of speaking Some people may think that speaking competence is the product of language learning; however, speaking becomes an essential factor of the language learning process besides listening, reading and writing. According to Florez (1999:98), speaking is an interactive process which students produce and receive information to create the meaning.