VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo--- BÙI THỊ HUỆ APPLICATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING APPROACH IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 11TH FORM STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN THAI BINH (ÁP DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP HỌC THEO DỰ ÁN TRONG VIỆC DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11: NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN SƢ PHẠM TẠI MỘT TRƢỜNG THPT Ở THÁI BÌNH) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi - 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo--- BÙI THỊ HUỆ APPLICATION OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING APPROACH IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO 11TH FORM STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN THAI BINH (ÁP DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP HỌC THEO DỰ ÁN TRONG VIỆC DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11: NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN SƢ PHẠM TẠI MỘT TRƢỜNG THPT Ở THÁI BÌNH) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Nguyễn Thị Hƣơng Hanoi - 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that no part of the thesis entitled “Application of Project-Based Learning Approach in teaching speaking to 11th form students: An action research project at a High School in Thai Binh.” has been copied or reproduced by me from any other works without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor. Hanoi, 2018 Student‘s signature Bùi Thị Huệ 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong for her enthusiastic support, helpful guidance and considerable encouragement.
Without her instruction, I could not complete the study. Secondly, I would also like to thank my beloved students for their enthusiastic participation in the PBL lessons, the questionnaire as well as the interviews. Without their passionate participation, the study could not have been successfully implemented. Also, I want to send my sincere thanks to the headmaster of Dong Thuy Anh High School for permitting me to carry out the study in our school.
In addition, I am grateful to my colleagues who helped me in implementing the study in the school. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my husband and my family for their support and encouragement. Without their help, I could not complete my master program or implement the study. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study is carried out to examine how Project-Based Learning affects students‘ speaking skills as well as students‘ opinions on Project-Based Learning implementation.
The study adopts action research with the use of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, including pre- and post – tests, questionnaire, teaching journals and interviews. The findings report that the students in the study made some significant improvement in their speaking scores. More specifically, the average-level students are likely to benefit the most from this activity because their speaking scores are raisen the most. In term of the speaking test criteria including grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse management and interactive communication, the students also made a lot of progress.
However, each level group of students did not make improvement equally; even there is a group which did not make any progress. Apart from that, the results from the interviews and questionnaire with the students as well as the teaching journals reveal that a majority of students are in favor of PBL. Despite the positive outcome of the research, there is still a need for further studies to assess more PBL‘s effects and the best way to apply PBL in official school curricula. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .3 TABLE OF CONTENTS .4 LIST OF FIGURES .1 Rationale of the study.
Aims and objectives of the study. Significance of the study. Methods of the study. Structure of the study .10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Speaking in foreign language learning. Definition of speaking. Principles of speaking teaching. Project-Based Learning.
Definition of Project-Based Learning. Characteristics of Project-Based Learning. Benefits of Project-Based Learning. Theoretical framework: PBL approach to teaching speaking .19 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Setting of the study. Data collection procedure .24 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.27 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Classification of the students‘ levels based on the pretest results. Effects of PBL on the students‘ overall speaking skills.
Effects of PBL on the students‘ grammar and vocabulary. Effects of PBL on the students‘ discourse management. Effects of PBL on the student‘s pronunciation. Effects of PBL on the students‘ interactive communication.
Students‘ opinions on PBL. Student‘s perception of the PBL speaking lessons. Major findings of the study. The effects of PBL on students‘ speaking skills.
Students‘ opinions on PBL implementation in class. Suggestions for further studies. Limitations of the study. IV APENDIX A: PRE AND POST SPEAKING TEST.
PRE-SPEAKING TEST. POST SPEAKING TEST. V 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. SPEAKING TEST CRITERIA.
VII APENDIX B: LESSON PLANS. XXXII APENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE. XLVIII APENDIX D: INTERVIEWS. LI 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The number of students in each group arranged by their pretest speaking scores29 Figure 2: Mean comparison of overal pretest and posttest scores.
30 Figure 3: Students' perception on their speaking skill improvement after PBL lessons. 31 Figure 4: Students' perception on PBL's boosting their confidence. 32 Figure 5: Mean comparison of grammar and vocabulary scores of the pretest and posttest. 34 Figure 6: Students' perception on their improvement in grammar and vocabulary after PBL lessons.
34 Figure 7: Mean comparison of discourse management scores of the pretest and posttest. 36 Figure 8: Students' perceptions on their fluency and coherence improvements after PBL lessons. 37 Figure 9: Mean comparison of pronunciation scores of the pretest and posttest. 38 Figure 10: Students' perception on their pronunciation improvements after PBL lessons.
38 Figure 11:Mean comparison of interactive communication scores of the pretest and posttest. 40 Figure 12: Students' opinions on their improvement in interactive communication after PBL lessons. 40 Figure 13: Students' opinions on their involvement in PBL class. 42 Figure 14: Students' opinions on the unncessity of PBL in English speaking classroom.
43 Figure 14: Students' opinions on carrying out more PBL activities in the future. 44 Figure 15: Students' opinions on the appropriateness of PBL in English speaking classroom. 44 Figure 16: Students' opinions on the appropriateness of the project topics. 45 Figure 17: Students' opinions on the appropriateness of the teacher's instruction.
49 Figure 18: Students' opinions on the appropriateness of time allocation for each project. 50 Figure 19: Students' opinions on the stimulation and engagement of PBL in comparison with other speaking activities. 51 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the rationale, aims and objectives, significance of the study are presented. Also, the research questions, chosen research methods and structure of the researcher are put forward.1 Rationale of the study The need for acquiring good communicative skills in English has been increasing in everyday and work situations.
So speaking has played an increasingly essential role in second language learning settings. It is also the reason why Dong Thuy Anh High School, a prestigious state high school in Thai Binh province, has been paying more attention in teaching speaking skills for students recently. However, being orally competent in English has still been a far-fetched dream among most of students. In the researcher‘s real teaching context, it is noticed that the majority of the researcher‘s students really want or need to be fluent in speaking English.
In spite of their desires, many of them cannot perform the speaking tasks successfully. Surprisingly, they actually have good ideas since they can express their opinions cogently on the papers but when being asked to speak, they become nerve-racking, hesistant and disorganized. Some even do not feel elated and enthusiastic when participating in oral activities and tend to work independently in pair or group work. This is due to such possible reasons as tension, shyness and/ or lack of confidence, and effective communication skills in English.
Besides, the teaching strategies used, the uninteresting activities in the text book or lack of opportunities to communicate orally also make students stay passive in speaking lessons. This problem urges the researcher to find suitable methods in order to help students take part in communicative tasks actively and gregariously. The researcher thinks that authentic learning experience can be a solution. Bringing the real world problems into the classroom can encourage students‘ engagement, curiosity, inquiry, which could motivate them to participate actively in speaking lessons.
Project-Based Learning (PBL), which has been strongly promoted in recent years, 8 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com meets the above requirements because according to George Lucas Educational Foundation (2001), through PBL, students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups. Considering the benefits of PBL that can bring to the students, the researcher conducts a study on the implementation of PBL to develop the English speaking skill for eleventh - grade students at Dong Thuy Anh High School. Aims and objectives of the study To begin with, the study is carried out in Dong Thuy Anh High School in order to find out whether PBL activities can help the 11th form students improve their speaking skills or not. Their speaking competence development is measured via two tests: one before PBL and the other after PBL.
Afterward, the paper investigates the students‘ attitude on the use of PBL in the class in term of the effectiveness of PBL, their perceptions on PBL implementation in the class and so on. In short, the objectives of the study could be summarized into two research questions as follows: 1. To what extent does the Project- Based Learning help to improve speaking skill for grade 11 students at Dong Thuy Anh High School? 2. What are the students‘ opinions on the PBL in learning speaking? 1.
Significance of the study Once the study is completed, it will serve as one of the first to investigate the use of PBL in Dong Thuy Anh High School. Thus, it may be of considerable use for other teachers of English in Dong Thuy Anh High School or researchers who want to investigate more in applying PBL to high school students. Furthermore, the study is an action research, i. PBL is applied on the class the researcher is teaching.
This helps to enhance the validity of the feasibility of PBL in schools. So, the recommendations and conclusions from the study could be 9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com useful to the policymakers in Dong Thuy Anh High School as well as in other schools nationwide if PBL is consider to be applied into school curricula. Methods of the study The study uses the approach of an action research, i. PBL would be applied directly into the class that the researcher is teaching.
Also, both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods are applied into this research. In term of qualitative method, interviews are used to gather student‘s opinions toward PBL activities in class. In term of quantitative method, questionnaires and tests are applied. The results from the questionnaire and interviews will be regarded to the students‘ general attitude toward PBL, their perception on the effectiveness of PBL on their speaking levels and speaking skills.