Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of languages and international studies Post-graduate Department ------------------- Hoµng ThÞ Dù The use of Warm-up activities in speaking lessons in Yen Lang high school: A case study (ViÖc sö dông c¸c ho¹t ®éng tiÒn d¹y nãi trong giê d¹y nãi ë THPT YªN l·NG, ®iÓn cøu) MA. Minor thesis Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi- 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of languages and international studies Post-graduate Department ------------------- Hoµng ThÞ Dù The use of Warm-up activities in speaking lessons in Yen Lang high school: A case study (ViÖc sö dông c¸c ho¹t ®éng tiÒn d¹y nãi trong giê d¹y nãi ë THPT YªN l·NG, ®iÓn cøu) MA. Minor thesis Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Ms. Hanoi- 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv Table of contents Declaration.
i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract. iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations and tables. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the study. 3 Chapter 1: Literature Review.
Aspects of speaking. Purpose of speaking. Participants in speaking. Medium of speaking.
Differences between speaking and writing. Teaching of speaking in different approaches .1 Teaching of speaking in the Grammar translation method .2 Teaching of speaking in the Direct method. Teaching of speaking in the Audio-lingual method. Teaching of speaking in Communicative language teaching.
Warm- up activities in speaking .1 Definitions of warm- up activities. Purposes of teaching warm-up activities. Motivating learners in learning. Introducing the topic of the lesson .3 Getting students’ attention.
Providing some useful languages. 12 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Some common warm-up activities. Evaluation of warm- up activities in speaking lessons.
Setting of the study. Data collection instrument. Data-collection procedure. Data analysis procedure.
22 Chapter 3: Study results. Teachers’ frequency of using warm-up activities. Teachers’ frequent purposes of using warm-up activities. Research question 2: Teachers’ perception of the importance of warm-up activities.
Research question 3: Teachers’ difficulties when employing warm-up activities. Teachers’ difficulties when preparing warm-up activities. Teachers’ difficulties while practising warm-up activities. Teachers’ difficulties when evaluating the use of warm-up activities.
Research question 4: Teachers’ satisfaction of their employment of warm-up activities. Research question 5: Students’ satisfaction of their teachers’ employment of warm-up activities. Pedagogical implications from the findings. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.
40 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi List of abbreviations and tables Abbreviations CLT: Communicative language teaching FL: Foreign language CFL: College of foreign languages TS: Teaching of speaking WAS: Warm-up activities Y L: Yen Lang Tables Table 1.1: Differences between speaking and writing Table 1.2 : Common approaches to teaching speaking Table 2.1: Number of students in each group Table 3.1: Teachers’ frequency of using WAS and their years of teaching experience Table 3.2: Teachers’ frequency of using WAS (Information from teachers) Table 3.3: Teachers’ frequency of using WAS (Information from students) Table 3.4: Teachers’ frequent purposes of using WAS Table 3.5: Teachers’ perception of the importance of warm-up activities Table 3.6: Teachers’ difficulties when preparing warm-up activities Table 3.7: Teachers’ difficulties while practising warm-up activities Table 3.8: Teachers’ difficulties when evaluating the use of WAS Table 3.9: Teachers’ satisfaction with their used WAS Table 3.10: Students’ satisfaction with teachers’ WAS LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale Today with the development of economy and relationship between nations there is an increasing demand for foreign language learning, especially speaking skill. People need oral communication in daily life more than written words. Therefore, the teaching of speaking has recently been paid more attention to learners.
It is no doubt that the ability to use verbal communication in a second language effectively contributes to the success of learners at school time as well as later in their lives. Actually, the teaching of speaking has undergone substantial changes due to the changes in language teaching approach. For Vietnamese learners, speaking skills have been fostered through repeating after the teacher, the use of dictation, rote-learning of text, reading aloud and the like. Consequently, although students know vocabulary and grammar, a lot of them cannot use the language they learn in oral communication.
Students of Yen Lang high school (Me Linh, Ha Noi) encounter the same problem when they practise speaking. The situation has been better since communicative language teaching was adopted. Communicative competence in speaking has been focused on in order to meet the demand of the society in the new context. However, teaching speaking in a classroom environment faces certain difficulties.
For example, students often experience lack of knowledge, words and expressions needed for speaking or motivation to speak. They even suffer from shyness or lack of confidence. Thus, arousing students’ interest as well as providing them some language preparation is an essential part to prepare for students to speak. In spite of not being a main task warm-up activities contribute to the success of speaking lessons.
The importance of warm-up activities in learning English has been confirmed in many studies. For example, it has been found out that pre-reading techniques have great impact on the students’ motivation to read (To, 2007) and brainstorming before speaking tasks encourages better learning (Cullen, 2008). However, practicing warm up activities in a school LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 which has adopted communicative method for only four years like YL high school is still a new technique and requires great efforts from teachers. To see how the teachers in YL high school use warm-up activities in speaking lessons encourages the author to carry out this study.
Aims of the study The study aims at investigating the use of warm up activities in speaking lesson in YL high school. The study is carried out to answer the following questions: 1. How are warm-up activities employed in term of frequency and purpose? 2. How do teachers perceive warm-up activities in term of importance? 3.
What are the difficulties teachers often encounter when preparing and conducting warm-up activities? 4. How satisfied do teachers feel with their employment of warm-up activities? 5. How satisfied do students feel with the employed warm-up activities? 3. Scope of the study The study focuses only on examining the use of warm-up activities in speaking lessons.
The participants are all teachers of English and 315 students among 1350 students in YL high school. The study was carried when the school students were studying the second term of the year 2008-2009. Methodology This study is a primary research based mainly on survey questionnaires. Two sets of questionnaires were designed.
The first one was administered to all teachers of English and the other was delivered to students of six classes in YL high school to examine the use of warm-up activities in speaking lessons. Data collected from survey questionnaires was analyzed quantitavely. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Significance of the study The result of the study will be used for the author’s personal growth in teaching job.
In addition, the findings of the study can provide teachers with descriptive information about the use of warm-up activities in speaking lessons in YL high school. The information might be useful for teachers who want to enhance their use of warm-up activities in speaking lessons in order to encourage students to speak. Structure of the study The study consists of five parts including introduction, chapter one, chapter two, chapter three and conclusion. The first part introduces the rationale, the aim, the scope, the methodology, the significance and the structure of the study.
Chapter one presents aspects of speaking, the teaching of speaking in different approaches and warm-up activities in speaking lessons. Chapter two presents the setting, the sampling, data collection and data analysis procedure. Chapter three presents the results of the study and discussion on the results. The last part of the study offers major findings, pedagogical implication, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Chapter 1: Literature review 1. Aspects of speaking 1. Purposes of speaking Speaking is to interact with other people in expressing themselves and forming social relationships through speech (Bygate, 1987). The main purpose of speaking is to communicate with other people.
By speaking we can express our thoughts, our ideas that we like other people to understand (Fulcher, 2003). According to Nunan, communication in speaking can be expressed into two ways: information routine and interaction routine. In information routine, only speakers provide information. For example, speakers tell a story, describe something or give a set of instruction.
In interaction routine both speakers and listeners participate in the conversation (Nunan, 1999). For example, speakers and listeners interact at the party, in an interview or in a discussion. Participants in speaking Participants in spoken communication play roles as speakers and listeners. The speaker has to plan and organize the message and to control the language being used in the communication (Fulcher, 2003).
When we speak, we usually need to be in the same place and time as the listener. Despite this restriction, speaking does have the advantage that the speaker receives instant feedback from the listener. The speaker can probably see immediately if the listener is bored or does not understand something. Then he can modify or correct himself or improve what he has already said (Bygate, 1987).
On the other hand, the listener in oral communication can give immediate reaction to what is spoken. According to Bygate, the listener is “in front of us and able to put us right if we make mistakes. He can also generally show his agreement and understanding or incomprehension and disagreement” (Bygate, 1987:12). LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 Thus, the speaker and the listener are the people who can directly use spoken language to communicate with each others.
They can adjust a message immediately so that understanding can be improved. Medium of speaking The spoken language is the medium of speaking and the outer manifestation of the spoken language is sound (Fulcher, 2003). The spoken language has to be planned and articulated with considerable speech. The speaker must decide what to say, be able to articulate the words and create physical sounds that carry meaning.
In addition to languages, speakers’ voices such as pitch, rhythm, stress and intonation can also contribute to conveying messages. Therefore, in order to speak a foreign language, learners need knowledge of the language they wish to speak, for example, pronunciation of sound, rules of speech, rules of grammar and the like (Fulcher, 2003). In speaking, the speaker can also use body languages or facial expressions to convey messages or to express his feeling if he or she is in front of the listener. This is the reason why the speaker has more ways to convey messages than the writer who often use written language to express meanings and ideas.
Differences between speaking and writing People can communicate with others by using a verbal language which can be in form of speaking or writing. However, there are differences between two types of communication. Speaking Writing - Speakers can receive immediate - Writers cannot receive immediate feedback from listeners. feedback from readers.
Interaction - Listeners have to request - Readers can reread if they do not speakers for repetition if they do understand. Language - Speakers can use voice (pitch, - Writers rely on words to express used rhythm, stress,) and spoken meanings and ideas LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 language to convey messages. - Speakers use less formal - Writers use more formal language language and may make mistakes. with correct grammar.
- Speakers use pause and - Writers use punctuation.