VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO THỊ MẾN AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON USING PICTURES TO ENCOURAGE 4TH GRADERS TO PARTICIPATE IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT A PRIMARY SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng tranh ảnh nhằm khuyến khích cho học sinh lớp 4 tại một trường tiểu học ở Bắc Ninh tham gia vào các hoạt động nói) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi - 2020 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 ĐÀO THỊ MẾN AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON USING PICTURES TO ENCOURAGE 4TH GRADERS TO PARTICIPATE IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT A PRIMARY SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng tranh ảnh nhằm khuyến khích cho học sinh lớp 4 tại một trường tiểu học ở Bắc Ninh tham gia vào các hoạt động nói) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thu Hạnh, PhD. Hanoi - 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled “An Action Research Project on Using Pictures to Encourage 4th Graders to participate in speaking activities at a Primary School in Bac Ninh Province” in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts. Hanoi, July 2019 Đào Thị Mến i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to register my profound gratitude to Mrs. Nguyen Thu Hanh, my respected supervisor, for her invaluable instruction, contribution and great care to my research.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the teachers of Department of Post-Graduate Studies who have supplied me with the good conditions to conduct this thesis and finish this M. My thanks go to my managers at my school, my colleagues for their assistance, encouragement during the time I participated in M. Also, I owe my debt to my colleagues and students who are the subjects of my thesis for their willingness to answer my talks, questionnaires, and interviews. Lastly, I am also grateful to my families for their kindly encouragement during the research‟s finalization.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) encourage students to take a more active role in the oral activities in the classroom through different strategies. This study was conducted with the purpose to identify the effectiveness of using pictures to encourage the student‟s participation in speaking activities. The study showed that most students at this primary school experienced many difficulties in speaking English and they were not confident when they spoke or talked to their friends. To make situation better, an action plan was made, focusing on using pictures to motivate them actively to participate in speaking English.
The subjects of the study were 32 fourth graders of a primary school in Bac Ninh province. To that end, action research (AR) was attempted with the use of quantitative and qualitative methods to determine whether the use of pictures can improve the students‟ participation in speaking activities in class as well as their attitudes towards the use of pictures during speaking lessons. The data were collected through the talks with colleagues, students‟ pre and post-questionnaires, and interviews. The research was conducted during the first semester of the school year 2016 – 2017.
The findings of the study suggested that through using pictures the fourth graders‟ participation in speaking activities increased because this technique made the lessons more interesting and attractive. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF PROJECT REPORT. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LISTS OF TABLES.
vii LISTS OF FIGURES. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the thesis.3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Overview of speaking skills.
Definitions of speaking skills. Types of speaking skills. Difficulties in teaching and learning English speaking skills. The practice of teaching and learning speaking skills to primary students.
Overview of pictures and their use in speaking lessons. Definitions of pictures. Types of pictures. Benefits of using pictures in teaching language.
Activities used with pictures to teach speaking skills for children .17 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .18 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. An overview of action research. Data collection instruments .30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Analysis of the talks with colleagues.
Analysis of personal class observation. Analysis of students‟ pre-questionnaire. Analysis of students‟ post-questionnaire evaluation. Analysis of the interviews .47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Effectiveness of using pictures to motivate students to speak. Students‟ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities. Limitations of the research. For the teachers.
For the students. Recommendations for further research. I APPENDIX 1: TALKS TO THE COLLEAGUE. I APPENDIX 2: TALKS TO THE COLLEAGUE.
II v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX 3: TALKS TO THE COLLEAGUE .III APPENDIX 4: PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS. IV APPENDIX 5: POST-QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS. VIII APPENDIX 6: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS. X APPENDIX 7: LESSON PLAN.
XI vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF TABLES Table 3.1: Procedure and duration of conducting questionnaires .2: Procedure of conducting interviews .1: Factors causing students‟ low participation .2: Students‟ frequency of attending speaking activities .3: Students‟ opinions about speaking activities in the class .4: Students‟ opinions about English speaking activities using pictures .5: Students‟ opinions of the benefits of using pictures in English speaking activities .6: Students‟ own changes after using pictures in speaking activities .41 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Steps in the action research cycle (Kemmis & Mc Taggart, 1998) .1: Students‟ evaluation of the English speaking activities in the classroom.2: Students‟ evaluation on their anxiety in English speaking lessons .3: Students‟ interest in learning English speaking skills .37 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the research problem and rationale for the study. It then draws the aims and the objectives of this thesis, along with the research questions. This is followed by the reason why the research is significant. The scope of this research is then discussed.
The last section indicates the organization of the paper. Rationale for the study These days, English has been considered as an international language which facilitates communication between people all over the world. To understand each other better, it is necessary for each individual to master and use English fluently. According to Hoàng Văn Vân (2010), the English language, widely known as the global language, has become popular in Vietnam for some decades.
It mostly becomes a compulsory subject and has been taught almost everywhere in Vietnam from schools, colleges to universities. The Vietnamese government and the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training have been taking a lot of actions in an ambitious education reform so that by the year 2020 all students will reach B1 level adopting CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) standard after leaving high schools. They are taking a phased approach in which primary English language teaching plays a very important role. As a primary English teacher, the researcher finds that in order to study English as a foreign language and to be successful with it, students must be helped by the teachers to acquire language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing but most language teachers still follow a traditional and test-oriented teaching approach.
They often concentrate on teaching English vocabulary, sentence patterns, or sometimes pronunciation so the students do not spend much time speaking and as a result their participation in speaking activities is low. They do not feel confident or even afraid of making mistakes when speaking before the class. Of these four skills, speaking skills need a great support. In her teaching experience, the researcher has found that one of the aspects that the students really 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com need is to encourage them to participate in classroom speaking activities.
That is why in this thesis she wants to find out the factors that affect her students‟ participation in speaking activities, and help them overcome it through using pictures in teaching speaking English to motivate them to more participate in speaking activities. And then she realized the effectiveness of the use of pictures in teaching and learning English as well as the students‟ attitudes towards of the use of pictures in learning English. Aims and objectives of the study The aim of the study mainly focuses on the application of different types of pictures in teaching English-speaking skills to 4th graders in classroom speaking activities. Particularly, the primary purpose of the current study is to explore the benefits of using pictures in speaking lessons to the researcher‟s students.
Besides, the study investigates these students‟ attitudes towards the use of pictures in classroom speaking activities. Research questions For the purpose of the research, the current study had the following questions: 1) To what extent does the use of pictures motivate the 4th grade students to take part in classroom speaking activities in a Bac Ninh primary school? 2) What are these students’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in English speaking activities? 4. Scope of the study Due to time constraint, the length of the thesis and the researcher‟s knowledge, this study cannot generalize to all kinds of learners and situations. It is better to generalize to a small size of classroom and for students aged of 10.
In addition, the study is limited to only one class at one primary school in Bac Ninh province. Therefore, how the other groups of ages respond to the use of pictures in speaking activities, and how the use of pictures can help them improve speaking skills are not investigated in this study. Finally, the study focuses on the use of pictures to motivate students with their speaking skills only, other skills are not the subjects of the study. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Significance of the study Theoretically, this study contributes to the knowledge of communicative teaching, specially teach and learn speaking skills to young learners, the employment of pictures in promoting students‟ active participation in English lessons. Practically, the success of the study will help teachers understand more about students‟ interest and difficulties in classroom speaking activities with the use of pictures. From that, the teachers can find out the appropriate and stimulating activities to help students improve their speaking skills. Organization of the thesis The study is divided into five chapters as follows: the introduction, the literature review, the research methodology, the findings and discussion, and the conclusion.
Chapter 1 Introduction reveals the rationale, the aims and objectives of the study, the scope of the study, the significance and the structure of the study. It expresses the reasons why the researcher decided to carry out this research. Some main points related to the research such as research questions, significance of the research will also be mentioned. Chapter 2 Literature Review provides the overview of speaking skills and their types; the practice of teaching and learning English speaking skills to primary students as well as the general knowledge of pictures such as their definitions, their types and benefits of using pictures in teaching language.
Furthermore, the previous studies related to the research are included. Chapter 3 Research Methodology discusses the research-governing principles and research methods.