VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -----***----- LƢƠNG THỊ MINH PHƢƠNG A STUDY ON THE USE OF TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE 2nd YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC THEO ĐƢỜNG HƢỚNG GIAO NHIỆM VỤ TRONG DẠY HỌC KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 HA NOI, 2014 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 -----***----- LƢƠNG THỊ MINH PHƢƠNG A STUDY ON THE USE OF TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE 2nd YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC THEO ĐƢỜNG HƢỚNG GIAO NHIỆM VỤ TRONG DẠY HỌC KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014. Duong Thi Nu HA NOI, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com i CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A study on the use of task-based approach in teaching speaking to the 2nd year English majored students” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Hanoi, 2014 Luong Thi Minh Phuong LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Dr. Duong Thi Nu for her restless and sympathetic encouragement, valuable advice and patient guidance until the completion of this study. My sincere thanks also go to my dear colleagues at Vietnam University of Commerce for all their helps, supports and encouragement when I encountered difficulties. I wish to acknowledge my thankfulness to class 1405ENPR5011 of English Faculty at Vietnam University of Commerce for their enthusiastic participation in the experiment.
Finally, I am deeply indebted to my beloved mother, my family members and my post-graduate friends Nguyen Thi Mai Huong, Anh20B, Ta Thi Mai Huong, Anh20B, Tran Thi Long, Anh20B, Tran Thi Huyen, Anh20B, Nguyen Hoang Do, Anh20A and others for their sacrifice and encouragement and care. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iii Abstracts The focus of this study was on the use of task-based approach in teaching speaking for the 2nd year English majored students at Vietnam University of Commerce. A one group pre-test/post-test quasi- experimental design was employed with the participation of 40 students from English Faculty. The test results showed that the task-based approach had a positive impact on students‟ speaking achievement after the experiment.
Another instrument, the questionnaire, was administered to the participants in order to draw on qualitative data. The data revealed the positive consequences for significant changes in students‟ learning attitude and motivation. The task-based project also welcomed favorable evaluations from the students that would be of great help to the future applications of task-based language teaching. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Acknowledgment.
iii Tables of contents. iv List of Abbreviations. vi List of tables. vii PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Method of the study.
Organization of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Task-based language teaching .1Task-based language teaching .2Definitions of Tasks within TBI .3TBL in a Business English course .4Framework for Task-based Instruction (TBI) .3 Advantages of TBLT .4 Misunderstanding about TBLT .5 Theoretical justification for TBLT. 16 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD .1 Context of the study .1 Quasi-experimental Research .4 Data Collection Procedures .5 Data Analysis Methods. 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Students’ improvement in learning speaking. 24 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Students’ attitudes towards and motivation of the Task-based project. Level of motivation amongst students adopting the TBL.
Students’ difficulties encountered in the TBL project. Students’ expectation of the improvement of the TBL .2 Limitations of the study .3 Suggestions for further study. III APPENDIX III. IV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BE: Business English ELT: English language Teaching ESL: English as a Second Language ESP: English for Specific Purposes TB: Task-based TBI: Task-based Instruction TBLT: Task-based Language Teaching TBL: Task-based Learning TBT: Task-based Teaching VUC: Vietnam University of Commerce LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii List of Tables Table 1: Scores of the pre-test and post-test.
26 Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations of the scores of the pre-test and post-tes .1: Paired Samples Test. 27 Table 4: Scores of Pre-treatment and post-treatment Tests. 29 Table 5: Students’ attitude towards the task-based project. 32 List of Graphs Graph 1: Frequency distribution of the pre-test scores.
28 Graph 2: Frequency distribution of the post-test scores. 29 Graph 3: Levels of interest in the new speaking learning method. 31 Graph 4: Students’ attitude towards the TB project. 32 Graph 5: Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the TBL approach.
33 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A - INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Courses in (listening and) speaking skills have a prominent place in language programmes around the world today. Ever-growing needs for fluency in English around the world as a consequence of the role of English as the world‟s international language have given priority to finding more effective ways to teach English (Richards, 2009). Vietnam is not out of this current trends for English teaching and learning.
The needs for meeting job requirements put students majored in business to enhancing their language skills and ability for international business communication. However, the current situation of teaching and learning now in Vietnam is of critical problem to solve resulting from inappropriate teaching materials and instructional techniques. Here comes the same context to what happens in the teaching and learning ESP at Vietnam University of Commerce. The traditional method being applied now is mainly teacher-centered and lecture- oriented, which commonly results in the passivity and non-involvement in speaking activities of students.
From all of the above, finding appropriate methods is an urge that the teachers here are striving for. Willis and Willis (2007:1) asserts that “…the most effective way to teach a language is by engaging learners in real language use in the classroom. This is done by designing tasks – discussions, problems, games, and so on – which require learners to use the language for themselves.” Other language researchers and practitioners like Candlin (1987), Swain (1995) and Hutchinson and Walter (1987) all agree that TBLT could bring good opportunities for students to master their language skills through numerous and useful kinds of tasks. From this suggestion and above initial problems, the author decided to develop a quasi-experimental research on the use of task-based approach in teaching speaking for the 2nd year English majored students at Vietnam University of Commerce.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Aims of the study This was a quasi-experiment research of which purpose was to investigate the influence of implementing task-based approach on the second-year-English- major students at Vietnam University of Commerce (VUC). Specifically, it addressed the following research question: - How do second-year English major students at Vietnam University of Commerce benefit from the implementation of the task-based approach? The focus of the study is not only on student‟s achievement in their speaking skills but also on their changes in learning attitude and motivation. Scope of the study The study was conducted on 40 second-year English major of the English Department of Vietnam University of Commerce and restricted to the first half of the first semester of 2013-2014.
The intervention lasted for about one month and a half with five contacts, each a week. Significance of the study The study was conducted to find out whether the TB approach fits the needs of enhancing second-year students‟ speaking ability. As a result, the teachers at VUC are persuaded to adopt this approach in their teaching not only speaking but other language skills. Method of the study a.
Sample The sample consists of 40 students of the early second year in English Faculty of Vietnam University of Commerce. The students were selected randomly according to their credit registration at the end of the first year. The class were to receive TB instruction following an oral pre-test and then another post-test to check the effect of the new approach on speaking ability. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 The class were taught by the teacher who is qualified and has 5 years of experience in teaching business English at VUC.
Instrumentation A quasi-experimental research were employed in this minor thesis to find out the attitudes and motivation of 2nd year students toward speaking as well as the influence of TBLT on their speaking ability. In order to collect sufficient and relevant data for the study, two research techniques were implemented: - Using an oral pre-test and a post-test to evaluate the teaching and learning results - Conducting a semi-structured questionnaire to investigate how the students are interested in the intervention. Procedures The steps of the study are executed as follow: 1. Administer the first oral test to check the current speaking ability of the participants 2.
Implementing the TB instruction to the selected group of participants with a detailed schedule 3. Issuing a survey questionnaire to check students‟ attitudes, understanding of the experiment period 4. Administer a post-treatment test 5. Analyze the data and discuss the findings.
Structure of the study The study consists of three parts: Part A – Introduction presents the rationale, aim, scope, significance and method of the study Part B – Development: this part comprises of three chapters: LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 - Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and Literature review cover the overview of the literature in which relevant theoretical background and reviews of related studies concerning Business English, speaking skills and task-based language teaching (TBLT). - Chapter 2 – Research Method continues with the research method including the participants of the study, the instrumentation, the methods and procedures of data collection and data analysis. - Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion demonstrates the findings accompanied by data analysis and discussion. Part C – Conclusion recapitulates the major findings of the study and represents further recommendations for the implementation of TBLT.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 – THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Business English Business English has been receiving much concern from ESP practitioners, learners and language researchers. Orr (2002) sees Business English as a subfield that focuses on the development of communicative competence for business settings, also known as target situations or situated contexts in business. Business English is a rapidly growing field within the area of English language Teaching (ELT) and ESP (English for Specific Purposes). It is a straightforward term that is widely used and readily understood by practitioners, but its generality can lead to confusion (Johnson, 1993, Pickett, 1986 and Johns, 1986).
The term can be used to describe courses that range from an essentially English for General Purposes course that includes the teaching of some business lexis, to very specific courses, either in particular skills such as participating in or chairing meetings or report writing, or in particular disciplines such as finance or marketing. BE also differs itself from other ESP fields in that it is often a mix of specific content (relating to a particular job area or industry), and general content (relating to general ability to communicate more effectively albeit in business situation) (Ellis and Johnson, 1994, p.