VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THU HIỀN USING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT ĐỨC THIỆN VOCATIONAL SCHOOL (SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC GIAO NHIỆM VỤ ĐỂ TĂNG CƢỜNG SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG CẤP ĐỨC THIỆN) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THU HIỀN USING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT ĐỨC THIỆN VOCATIONAL SCHOOL (SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC GIAO NHIỆM VỤ ĐỂ TĂNG CƢỜNG SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG CẤP ĐỨC THIỆN) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Dr. Dƣơng Thị Nụ HANOI - 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration.
iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations. vii List of tables and charts. viii PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Aim and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Significance of the study. Design of the study. 4 Chapter 1: Literature review. What is speaking?.
The importance of speaking skill in learning language. What is student participation?. Factors affecting student participation in speaking class. Students‟ learning styles.
Teachers‟ teaching techniques. Teachers‟ personal qualities and characteristics. Task-based language teaching (TBLT). 7 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
What is of TBLT?. What is task within TBLT?. A framework for TBLT Implementation. Previous studies relating to applying TBLT in teaching speaking skill.
An overview of action research. Rationale for the use of an action research. Description of the context of the research. The current method of English language teaching at DTVS.
The teaching program and materials. Description of the research. Subjects of the research. Data collection instruments.
The action procedures. Data analysis procedures. 22 Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion. Analysis of questionnaire.
Students‟ attitudes towards speaking skill. Students‟ participation in speaking class. Students‟ motivations and learning styles. Students‟ difficulties in learning speaking skill.
Students‟ opinions on speaking activities in the textbook. Teacher‟s teaching methods in speaking class. Students‟ preferences and suggestions to increase their participation in speaking lessons. Analysis of observation.
29 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Number of students participating in speaking lessons. Students‟ speaking turns. Students‟ quality of participation.
Data from Observation sheet 1. Data from Observation sheet 2. Analysis of interview. Students‟ attitudes towards applied tasks and TBLT.
Students‟ difficulties in task-based speaking lessons. Students‟ suggestions for better implementing task-based lessons. Discussion of the research questions. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further research. XV vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DTVS: Đức Thiện Vocational school TBLT: Task-based Language Teaching TBL: Task-based Learning TBL: Task-based Lesson NTBL: Non-task-based Lesson vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES Table 1: Students‟ motivations on learning speaking skill Table 2: Students‟ learning styles Table 3: Students‟ difficulties in learning speaking skill Table 4: Students‟ opinions on speaking activities in the textbook Table 5: Students‟ comments on their previous teachers‟ teaching speaking skill Table 6: Students‟ preferences in working in speaking lessons Table 7: Students‟ recommendation for the things the teacher should do CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ attitude towards importance of speaking skill Chart 2: Students‟ attitude towards interestingness of speaking skill Chart 3: Students‟ participation in speaking lessons Chart 4: Students on-task behavior Chart 5: Students‟ speaking turns viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study English has been extensively studied and taught in Vietnam for decades. However, there exists some weakness in the teaching and learning of the speaking skill in non-English major courses at 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 results in learner passiveness and non-involvement in English speaking activities. Since I started teaching at Đức Thiện vocational school, I have always been trying my best to help my students speak better. However, I have had 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 efforts as possible to teach speaking skill carefully. Even though the students are really encouraged by the teachers, their participation in speaking lessons is very poor. This problem leads to the fact that the teachers often omit or teach speaking lessons perfunctorily to spend time teaching other parts in units so that their students can pass the final exam well. Although the students are not required to take any English speaking tests, 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. Task-based language teaching has been preferably applied in teaching languages with the hope to achieve the expected communicative results. Thanks to lectures on English language teaching methodology delivered in my master course, I understand about and really felt interested in TBLT.
Richards and Rodgers (2001:228) asserted that “Tasks are believed to foster process of negotiation, modification, rephrasing, and 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com experiment that are heart of second language learning”. Besides, Nunan (2005) argues that “task-based teaching does provide a flexible, functionally compatible and contextually sensitive approach for many teachers, as well as learners”. Therefore, the research “Using task-based language teaching to increase students’ participation in speaking lessons: An action research at Đức Thiện 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 to increase students‟ participation in speaking lessons at DTVS by using task-based language teaching.
Specifically, it has three objectives: - To find possible explanations for the poor participation of the students. - To justify the effect of task-based language teaching on students‟ participation. What are possible reasons that lead to students‟ participation in speaking lessons? 2. To what extent does task-based language teaching help increase students‟ participation in speaking lessons? 4.
Scope of 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 DTVS. 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 research is the best choice for the purpose of investigating students‟ difficulties in learning speaking and improving the students‟ participation in speaking lessons. In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely class observation, informal interviews and questionnaire, is used.
The data collected from the observation and 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 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 concern 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 DTVS in future. This new method may become the positive solution to the students‟ poor participation in learning not only speaking skill but also other skills.
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 literature focusing on the theoretical basis related to 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.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is concerned with the theoretical background of the study which includes an overview of speaking skill, students‟ participation, task-based language teaching, and previous studies relating to applying TBLT in teaching speaking skill. What is speaking? Linguists and educators define speaking in various ways: According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2004), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing ones‟thoughts and feelings in spoken languages.” Chaney (1998:13), however, considered speaking “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal or non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”. Sharing the same viewpoint, Florez (1999:1) added that speaking is an “interactive” process, which consists of three main stages “producing, receiving and processing information.” In language teaching and learning, speaking is considered a skill to practise. In this light, Nunan (2003:48) put it that “speaking is the productive oral skill.
It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning.” Indeed, to be a good learner of speaking, studying knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, etc. is not enough but the skill to use this knowledge to communicate successfully is indispensable. In brief, there are different concepts of speaking, i. speaking as an action, a process and a skill.
In this study, the term “speaking” will be used to refer to as a skill related to language teaching and learning. The importance of speaking skill in learning language Speaking plays an important part in communication. Marilyn Lerris (2003) believes that “Speaking makes you a more fluent language user, speaking is a chance to notice the gaps between what you want to say and what you can say, it is a chance to test hypotheses about language.” 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In recent years, communicative approach has become the main one in teaching and learning foreign languages. The ability to communicate in a second language “contributes to the success of the learner in school and later in every phase of life” (Kayi, 2006).
It is undeniable that the speaking ability is a good source of motivation for many language learners. They view learning the language as learning how to speak the language. Teachers should pay great attention to teaching speaking. However, teaching speaking is not easy.
Thus, a lot of studies relating speaking have been carried out to help learners speak with confidence. To sum up, speaking is the most effective way for people to communicate with each other. That is the reason why speaking skill is an important part of the second language learning and teaching. This is the working definition which the researcher will take into consideration during the whole research process.
What is student participation? Student participation can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction: students to their teacher, students to students, and students to material. The interaction between students and their teacher includes care, contact, co- operation between them in the class.