VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ QUYÊN A STUDY OF USING AUTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY TASKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 10 GRADE STUDENTS AT DOAN THUONG UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, HAI DUONG PROVINCE NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHIỆM VỤ BỔ TRỢ XÁC THỰC ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT ĐOÀN THƯỢNG, HẢI DƯƠNG M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ QUYÊN A STUDY OF USING AUTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY TASKS IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 10 GRADE STUDENTS AT DOAN THUONG UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL, HAI DUONG PROVINCE NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NHIỆM VỤ BỔ TRỢ XÁC THỰC ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT ĐOÀN THƯỢNG, HẢI DƯƠNG M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: ĐỖ BÁ QUÝ, M. HANOI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS page Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vi List of tables, charts and figures vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1.
Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 3 4. Methods of the study 3 5.
Design of the study 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1. An overview of Task-based Language Teaching 5 1. Definition of a task 5 1. Types of tasks 6 1.
An overview of supplementation 9 1. Authentic tasks in speaking 11 1. Definition of authentic tasks 11 1. Levels of authentic tasks 12 1.
The means of achieving authenticity 14 1. Overview of related studies 15 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Summary of the chapter 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17 2. Overview of Doan Thuong Upper-secondary School 17 2.
The context of teaching and learning English speaking skill in DTUS 17 2. The teacher informants 18 2. The student informants 18 2. Data collection instruments 18 2.
Data collection procedure 22 2. Data analysis methods and procedure 23 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 24 3. Research question 1: What are the teachers’ perceptions of attitudes 24 towards using AST in teaching speaking to 10 grade students? 3. Research question 2: What are the students’ attitudes towards the 32 effects of AST on their speaking lessons? 3.
Summary of the chapter 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 36 1. Summary of the findings 36 2. Limitations of the study 39 4. Suggestions for further studies 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I Appendix 1 : Survey Questionnaire for Teachers I Appendix 2 : Survey Questionnaire for Students V Appendix 3 : Classroom Observation Checklists VII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - AST : Authentic Supplementary Tasks - CLT : Communicative Language Teaching - DTUS : Doan Thuong Upper-secondary School - TEFL : Teaching English as a Foreign Language vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES Page List of tables Table 1 : Task components‟ classifications 7 Table 2 : Task components according to Nunan (2004) 7 Table 3 : Basic profiles of six teacher informants 18 Table 4 : Basic profiles of student informants 19 Table 5: Teacher‟s attitudes towards teaching speaking and using 26 authentic tasks in teaching speaking in general Table 6: The stage of the lesson that teachers preferred to use 30 authentic tasks Table 7: The work distribution that teachers preferred when using 30 authentic tasks Table 8: The advantages and disadvantages of AST as perceived by 33 the students Table 9: Results from open-ended questions 35 List of charts and figures Chart 1: Teachers‟ perceptions of the importance of authentic tasks in 24 TEFL Chart 2: Teachers‟ identifying of authentic and pedagogical tasks 25 Chart 3: Teachers‟ attitudes towards authentic tasks‟ advantages 28 Chart 4: Teachers‟ attitudes towards authentic tasks‟ disadvantages 29 Chart 5: Teacher‟s frequency of using authentic tasks 29 Chart 6: Students‟ responses as perceived by the teachers 31 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chart 7: Teachers‟ difficulties in exploiting AST 31 Chart 8: Students‟ attitudes towards AST‟s effects 32 Chart 9: Students‟ opinions towards teachers‟ applied AST 34 Figure 1: A frame work for Task-based Language Teaching 8 Figure 2: The relation among four language skills 10 Figure 3: Comparison between Brown and Menasche‟s levels of 13 authentic tasks and Nunan‟s classification of tasks viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study Nowadays, English has increasingly become one of the most popular languages with more than one billion speakers all over the world. English is playing a key role in today‟s modern world because it is used as an international language in many areas such as: science and technology, business and commerce, international relations and diplomacy, etc. Therefore, “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the national education system for the period 2008 - 2020” project was launched and carried out. Its goals are by 2020 : “making the majority of Vietnamese youth (.) have enough foreign language capability to use independently, be self-confident in communication and learning, work in an environment of integration, multi-language and multi-culture; making foreign languages (mainly English) become the strength of Vietnamese people and contributing to the industrialization and modernization of the country”.
The long– term plan set up an urgent requirement for foreign language teachers, in general, and English teachers, in particular to innovate and “learn the newest and best methods of teaching” (Hiệp, 2005, p. Another aims are to teach learners a working command of English to satisfy various communicative needs in their life and to build a friendly school with students‟ active learning (Hiệp, 2005). Fortunately, according to Hiệp (2005), since the early 1990s, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has widely spread out for the fact that, in comparison with traditional pedagogy -which is based on language study (grammar, literature) and written exercises (translation) rather than real life communication and speech, it meets the requirements of English learning in an era of integration and globalization. However, in the context of Vietnam education, it is lack of motivation from learning environment or even from the textbook that actuates Vietnamese learners to communicate successfully in English.
Therefore, it is necessary for English teachers to not only adapt the textbook but also apply authentic materials. These, with appropriate selection and implementation, can be 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com reliable sources for designing tasks in which formulaic language learning can be avoided, and can provide a bridge between the linguistic skills of learners and their ability to take part in native-like real world activity (Valeriu, 2000). Recognizing the gap, many researchers, both worldwide and in Vietnam, have analyzed the term “authenticity” in teaching Reading, Writing and Listening. However, the number of researched Speaking Authenticity ones is still limited while, thirty-five percent of our daily communication time is spent on speaking (Burely-Allen, 1995).
Therefore, the exploitation of authentic speaking tasks should receive worthy attention. Within the context of DTUS, Hai Duong province – a rural area school, students have few chances to use English in their daily life. The teachers pay much attention to grammar while student‟s proficiency is even not enough to master some particular tasks in the textbook. From my point of view, among four skills, speaking is the least preferred by students due to students‟ low level and the disparity between the textbook and students‟ needs.
Therefore, it requires some supplementation for the textbook to gradually upgrade the students‟ level as well as to motivate them to actively participate in English lessons, especially speaking ones. From the reasons mentioned above, the researcher finds her duty in conducting the study on “A Study of Using Authentic Supplementary Tasks in Teaching Speaking to 10 Grade Students at Doan Thuong Upper-Secondary School, Hai Duong Province” 2. Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at searching Doan Thuong Upper-Secondary School tenth grade teachers and students‟ attitudes toward exploiting authentic supplementary tasks in speaking lessons. To teachers, the researcher closely focuses on their perception of authentic tasks, using authentic supplementary tasks in speaking skill as well as the difficulties they encounter when carrying out the tasks.
To learners, concentration is put in another aspect: their perception of the effects of the authentic 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com supplementary tasks on their speaking lessons. To realize these aims, the answers to the following questions are sought: 1. What are the teachers‟ perceptions of and attitudes towards using authentic speaking supplementary tasks in teaching speaking to 10 grade students? 2. What are the students‟ attitudes towards the effects of the authentic supplementary tasks on their speaking lessons? 3.
Scope of the study Initially, the study only covers the tenth form teachers and students at DTUS. With a large number of participants as well as the variety of students‟ level, these samples can be considered an appropriate reflection of DTUS‟ teachers and students‟ language competence. Secondly, “the authentic speaking tasks” term of the study belongs to the supplementary term which does not contain the designed tasks in the textbook. Therefore, the evaluation of the textbook in terms of authenticity is not included in the study.
Only the teachers and students‟ beliefs and attitudes towards the term are presented. Finally, the “speaking tasks” mentioned in the thesis only means the activities that teachers and students carry out in the speaking periods (according to the course distribution). Any further tasks, for examples, in reading or listening lessons, are beyond the scope of this study. Methods of the study To reach the aims of the study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are made used of.
Data are collected from questionnaires and classroom observation. The quantitative data collected from survey questionnaire were then analyzed statistically, while qualitative data were obtained from classroom observation. Hopefully, with the combination of these methods, the study would yield reliable and valid findings. Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study.
The Development is the backbone of the thesis which includes three chapters. Chapter one supplies readers with the explanation of key conceptual terms, the definitions, the contrasting views and debates as well as the critical analysis of each key concept. Chapter two outlines the research methods used and demonstrates that recognized procedures have been followed in the study. Participants, data collection instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis methods and procedures would be included.
Chapter three presents the results collected from two instruments above in an objective way according to two research questions. Then, the discussion or the interpretation from the resulted would be presented. The Conclusions contains the summary of the main findings of the thesis, its limitation, suggestions for further studies and some pedagogical implications for teachers. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter acts as the theoretical foundation for the whole study in which key concepts find out their references.
In addition, an overview of related studies at the same level, which supports the researcher to carry out the study, is also included. An overview of Task-based Language Teaching 1. Definition of a task It can be emphatically asserted that a full and acute awareness of the term “task” appears almost essential to get a close and deep look at the theory of “authentic task”. Since CLT approach became an innovative approach in language teaching, task-based language teaching consolidates its central position; therefore, it raises an urgent question for researches to find out what does “task” means.