1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM AN ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH ORAL PRESENTATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE COURSEBOOK “TALK TIME” FOR THE SECOND YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI THÔNG QUA THUYẾT TRÌNH THEO CUỐN SÁCH “TALK TIME” CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ 2 ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ TÂM AN ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL THROUGH ORAL PRESENTATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE COURSEBOOK “TALK TIME” FOR THE SECOND YEAR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI THÔNG QUA THUYẾT TRÌNH THEO CUỐN SÁCH “TALK TIME” CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ 2 ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: ĐINH HẢI YẾN, M. HANOI – 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration. iii Table of Contents. iv List of Abbreviations .vii List of Tables, Charts and Figure .viii PART A: INTRODUCTION.
The rationales of the study. The scope and significance of the study. The aims of the study. Methods of the study.
The design of the study. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of speaking. Approaches to speaking.
Differences between spoken and written language. The importance of teaching speaking skill. Types of classroom speaking performance. Definitions and characteristics of oral presentations.
The importance of oral presentation skills. 9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Types of oral presentations. Procedure for using oral presentations as a class activity.
Definitions and characteristics of action research. Why action research?. Phases in action research. The current situation of teaching and learning English at HaUI.
The coursebook “Talk time” and the syllabus. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures .20 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Results from the questionnaire.
Students’ attitudes toward the use of oral presentations in English lessons. Students’ suggestions to increase the effectiveness of oral presentations in English lessons. Results from the students’ journals. Students’ overall performance during oral presentations.
Students’ suggestions to make a better presentation. Results from the observation sheet .31 CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS .35 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Planning, preparing, rehearsing and presenting. Setting up a good mood for the presentation.
For the teacher (s). Establishing a supportive and low-threat learning environment. Improving students’ non-verbal skills. Improving students’ verbal skills.
Summary of the findings. Limitations and suggestions for further study. VIII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry ESL: English as a Second Language EFL: English as a Foreign Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURE Tables: No Title Page 1 English curriculum at HaUI 17 2 Syllabus for teaching the course book “Talk time” 18 3 Students’ general beliefs in the usefulness of oral presentation 21 4 Students’ general belief about their own ability to do oral 23 presentation 5 Students’ general attitudes towards oral presentations 24 6 Result of the first observation of students’ presentations 31 7 Result of the second observation of students’ presentations 32 Charts: No Title Page 1 Aspects of the presentations students want their teacher to give 24 more feedback 2 Things teacher should do to help students make better 25 presentations 3 Things students should do to make good presentations 26 Figure: No Title Page 1 Figure 1: Action research phases 14 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 11 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. The rationales of the study Obviously, English is one of the most important and powerful languages in the world.
No language, ancient or modern, can be compared with English in respect of its international status. It is interesting to note that about half of mankind has chosen it as a means of communication with those who do not share the same language as them. It is means of international communication in the sense that it helps in interlinking the people living in other countries of the world. In Vietnam, Ministry of Education and Training has put more emphasis on teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English than ever before.
It is explicitly stated in the project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in national education system, period 2008-2020” that “by the year 2020 most Vietnamese youths whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities are capable of using a foreign language independently and confidently in communicating, studying and working in an environment of integration, multi-lingualism and multi-culturalism, making foreign languages the strength of Vietnamese people to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country” (Ministry of Education and Training, 2008, Decision No. To this aim, speaking as a communicative skill deserves more attention in teaching a foreign language. With the recognition of the importance of developing speaking skill for students, Hanoi University of Industry has implemented a new program which lasts four semesters and focuses on teaching English extensively for communication. The coursebook “Talk time” has been used for the fourth semester to help students master their speaking and listening skills.
Experiencing one term teaching this book last year, the researcher encountered quite a few problems in terms of the syllabus and the low English proficiency of the students. In addition, after making reference to the other teachers who also teach this coursebook, the author found out that all of classes still applied teacher-centred approach to the teaching and learning of English. As a result, teacher talking time was much greater than student talking time in class. Consequently, students’ speaking ability is not good enough.
To solve her own problems and give the students a chance to work independently and practise their English speaking skill, the author would like to do a small research on “An action research on developing speaking skill through oral presentations with LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 12 reference to the coursebook “Talk time” for the second-year non-major students at Hanoi University of Industry”. The scope and significance of the study This study mainly focuses on the impacts of oral presentations on the second year students’ performance in English lessons. Besides, their attitudes towards making oral presentations in class are also one of the concerns of the study. After that, some suggestions to help students improve the effectiveness of their presentations and speaking skills are offered.
The study involves the participation of 42 second year non English-majored students of Faculty of Accounting at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI). They have experienced four semesters studying English at this university. Conducting this study in a very specific context, I hope that, to some extent, the effective integration of oral presentations will make my students’ speaking and presentation skills much better and the current situation of teaching and learning English with the coursebook “Talk time” at HaUI will be generally improved. The aims of the study This study is designed to bring a new air into English classes for the second-year students at HaUI.
In general, it has three purposes. Firstly, it is to investigate the impacts of oral presentations on the students’ performance in English lessons. Secondly, it aims at finding students’ attitudes towards the use of oral presentations in the classroom. Finally, it is to provide the teachers with some suggestions to make best use of oral presentations in their teaching with a view to better their students’ speaking skill.
Methods of the study The theoretical background of the study is based on the theories and ideas presented in many books and articles published by various writers on language teaching in general and oral presentations in particular. This study employs three data collection instruments including questionnaire, students’ journals and observation sheet. By administering a questionnaire to a group of people, a huge amount of information can be collected in a limited amount of time. It is also proved to be cost-effective and time-saving.
In addition, students’ journals provide extensive data LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 13 for the study. Furthermore, teacher’s observation sheet is used to reflect students’ improvement in speaking and presentation skills. The design of the study The study consists of 3 parts: Part A, introduction, briefly states the rationales, the aims, the scope and significance, methods and design of the study. Part B, development, includes 4 chapters: Chapter 1, literature review, presents the theoretical background related to speaking skills and oral presentations in English.
Chapter 2, methodology, presents an overview on current situation of teaching and learning English in general and the coursebook “talk time” in particular. Furthermore, a description of syllabus and the coursebook is clearly presented. The justification of the use of data collection instruments is also included in this chapter. Chapter 3, results and discussion, is devoted to the data analysis and discussion of the findings.
Chapter 4, implications and suggestions, offers some pedagogical suggestions for the students and teachers of English at HaUI. Part C, conclusion, summarizes the key points and the limitations of the study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 14 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter briefly presents the previous and current literature on speaking skill and oral presentations. Besides, it also describes how oral presentations help improve students’ speaking skill in an ESL classroom.
Definitions of speaking In terms of the direction and modality, speaking is a productive oral skill which is generated by learners in language teaching. Speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. According to Florez (1999, p.1), speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information”. It is often “spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving” (1999, p.1) but it is not completely unpredictable.70) adds that “speaking emphasizes the use of language above the level of the sentence” and that “the learner is now concerned with using language, not English usages”.
The ultimate goal of learning a language is actually to be able to communicate, not to know language grammar rules or language usages. Therefore, learning to speak involves developing a number of skills and different types of knowledge about how and when to communicate. Brown and Yule (1983) propose a useful distinction between two basic language functions. These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationships.
They also highlight another basic distinction between monologue and dialogue when considering the development of speaking skill. The two authors state that the ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other native speakers for transactional and interactional purposes. Therefore, presentation skills should be learned and practiced carefully. To conclude, it is totally wrong that knowing the grammar rules of a language means that one can speak that language.
The speaker has to possess a variety of knowledge about LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 15 language use and culture to convey the right meaning and about when to speak appropriately. Approaches to speaking Traditionally, language teaching aimed at helping learners develop linguistic competence – that is, helping students master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns of English. It was thought that they could eventually put them all together and communicate.