VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIOAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES APPLICATION OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE 1Ÿ” YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESARCH AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY AP DUNG PHUONG PHAP DAY HOC THEO DUONG HUGNG GIAO NHIEM VU TRONG VIEC DAY Ki NANG NOI CHO SINH VIEN NAM THU NHAT KHONG CHUYEN TIENG ANH: NGHIEN CUU HANH ĐỘNG TAI TRƯỜNG KINH DOANH VA CÔNG NGHỆ HA NOI M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIOAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES APPLICATION OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE 1Ÿ” YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESARCH AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY AP DUNG PHUONG PHAP DAY HOC THEO DUONG HUGNG GIAO NHIEM VU TRONG VIEC DAY Ki NANG NOI CHO SINH VIEN NAM THU NHAT KHONG CHUYEN TIENG ANH: NGHIEN CUU HANH ĐỘNG TAI TRƯỜNG KINH DOANH VA CÔNG NGHỆ HA NOI M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Độ HA NOI, 2015 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify that the minor thesis entitled: “Application of task-based language teaching in teaching speaking to the 1" year non-English major students: An action research at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work and this thesis has not been submitted for any degree to any other university or tertiary institute. Signature: Date: November 30", 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Độ, who helped, supported and encouraged me while I conducted this study.
Without his helpful comments, value advice and considerable assistance, this study could not have been completed. I want to thank all lecturers of the Department of Post Graduate, University of language and international studies, Vietnam national University for providing me best conditions to fulfill my study. I also want to express my appreciation to my colleagues and my students at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology for their excellent assistance and cooperation in collecting data for the study. Last but not least, I would especially thank my family, my close friends and my classmates who supported and encouraged me to conduct this study.
il ABSTRACT It is the fact that speaking is one of the most important skills. However, the teaching and learning English speaking at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology are still far from satisfactory, which has urged the researcher to carry out the present study. By describing and analyzing the survey questionnaire, pre-test and post-test collected, the researcher managed to find out the reasons for the students’ weak speaking skill and justify the effectiveness of using task-based language teaching to improve the students’ speaking skill. Although the research has revealed some limitations, its findings prove that task-based language teaching improves students’ speaking skill.
Besides, this study has provided some implications for the teaching of English speaking skill for Vietnamese students. With detailed investigations and valid findings, the researcher believes that this study is a reliable and useful source of reference for language classes in general and for any learners and teachers who share the same concern. ill LIST OF ABREVIATIONS HUBT : Ha Noi University of Business and Technology TBLT : Task-based language teaching TBT : Task-based teaching TBL : Task-based learning ESL : English as a second language EFL : English as a foreign language PPP : Presentation-Practice- Production % : Percentage iv LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES AND GRAPHS Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill 22 Chart 2: Students’ interest towards speaking skill 22 Table 1: Students’ motivations 23 Table 2: Students’ learning styles 24 Table 3: Students’ problems in learning speaking skill 25 Table 4: Students’ comments on their previous teachers’ teaching 27 methods Table 5: The comparison of the percentage of students who passed the passing grade 29 Graph 1: Students’ opinions on speaking activities in the textbook 26 Graph 2: The score of students’ speaking competence 28 Graph 3: Improvement of the students’ speaking competence 29 TABLE OF CONTENT CANDIDATE’S STATEMENÏT. SG sgk 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .ccccesssescsscesseeeseescessceesecscesseeeseccesseesseeeaesaeseeeaeseneeseees ii LIST OF ABREVTA TTIONS.- HH HH HH HH HH HH ghgg iv LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES AND GRAPPHS.- ng re V PART I: INTRODUCTTION.
Rationale of the S{UỦY.- - Ghi HH HH TT nh 1 2. Aims and objectives of the Study. Research QU€SfIOINS.- -ó- 5 + +1 HT TT TH TH HH HH TT nà 2 CN vốn. Method of the Study.
Significance of the SfUdy. Design Of the StU.- -- G c 11911119111 TH HH ng 3 PART TI: DEVELUOPPMETNTT. G001 0000090896 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REV LEỀY. Go TH HH 0009600 4 1.1 Speaking in foreign language Ï€arn1nE.- --- -- «+ nh ng ng nnưy 4 1.1 Definition of speak1ng.-- - ----- s s11 ng gnH ng 4 1.- -- -- -- s1 SH HH HH tt 4 1.2 Task-Based Language Teach1ng.-- - -- + s 331911191 1 1 11 1 ng ng ng 7 1.1 Definition of TBLT and characteristics of TBL/Ï.2 Definition Of a faSK.
nh ng HT ng HH ng re 7 1.3 Components of the task-based teaching FramewOrĂK.4 Advantages of using task based language teaching .3 Previous studies relating to applying TBLT in teaching speaking skill.2 In Viet Nam oo. eee esessececssecssecseessecssecsaecseesseessesseesseesseessesseesseessesseeeaeens 13 IS. 13 VI CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOCY.-- 4c s11 1H TH HH TH HH Hệ 14 2.1 An overview of action T€S€ATCH. Rationale for the use of an action research .2 Description of the context of the r€S€aTCh .1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at HUBT.2 The teaching program and Imaf€T1AÌL.3 Description of the r€S€aTCHh.
c1 22199311 91119 1119 1 1H ng HH rry 17 2.1 Subject of the resS€arCH:.2 Data collection instruments .---- 11311662111 11111 1911111111 g0 111kg ve ngư 17 2.3 The action procedures .4 Data analysis procedures .- G1 SH HH rưy 21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.1 Analysis of QU€SfIOTI4]TC.-- vn HT TH HH HH nh ng 22 3.1 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill. - ----s +5 ss+s++sx+sexsss 22 3.2 Students’ motivations and learning styÏeS.3 Students’ difficulties in learning speaking skIÏÏ.4 Students’ opinions on speaking activities in the textbook.5 Teachers’ teaching methods in speaking cÏaSS.3 AnalySIS Of IICTVICW.4 Discussion about the research qu€SfIOINS .1 What are the possible reasons that lead to students’ weak speaking skill?31 3.2 To what extent does task-based language teaching improve students’ Speaking 034117. 33 PART TTT: CONCLUSIONN.- -- 5 + + 1x 1v vn TH HH Hệ 35 2.1 The f€aCh€TS. 0 G1 ng nh HH nh như 35 2.3 The other r€S€ATCH€TS.
Limitation of the S{UỈY. -- SG 1311211211191 91 111g HH ng rry 36 4. Suggestions for further r€S€aTCH.-- - 1111 1v HH g ng r ve 37 REEFERENCESS.o- 5< cọ Họ ch T000 0000009 00 38 [33500 PB. IV INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.- LH HH HT TH HH HH HH,IV APPENDIX G0.
-Q ST TH HH HT TT HH HH TH HH nrkt VII SPEAKING TEST (POS(-t€S). Gà SH TH HH HH HH TT TH HH Vil APPENDIX CS. IX THE ACTION PROCEDURES.-- G3 23121911911 HH HH ng HH g nưệt Ix APPENDIX 6 11177. xX ENGLISH SPEAKING ABILITY EVALUATION.
XI DESCRIPTION OF A SAMPLE TASK-BASED SPEAKING LESSON. XIV TRANSCRIPT OF STUDENTS’ ANSWERS IN THE INTERVIEW. XV AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS011. XxVII TRANSCRIPT OF TASK SAMPLE.
S9 HH ng rệt XVII vill PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study In recent years, English has been considered one of the most important and compulsory subjects for Vietnamese students. "Better English, better careers" was the answer given by many of them when they told about their purpose of learning this language. In addition, due to our country's recent regional and global participation, it is essential for people to communicate by English to keep up with the development of the world.
Therefore, speaking plays an important role because without it, communication cannot take place directly among people. According to Nunan (1991), speaking skill is an essential process for learning English. Performances through speaking are an indicator of success in careers and finally in life. When the researcher works as an English teacher at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology, she has faced two striking problems.
First and foremost, students are very weak at English, especially speaking skill. They always sit quietly and passively in the speaking lesson. Besides, they cannot implement speaking tasks well when teachers require, which makes them fear of English classes. Another issue she has met here is the teaching method.
Most of English teachers apply the traditional approaches such as teacher-centered or lecture-oriented in teaching speaking skill. Therefore, it is one of the main causes leading to students’ non- involvement and passiveness in the classroom. To deal with this trouble, the researcher has tried to find out a suitable way or an interesting teaching method to improve students’ speaking skill. In fact, many educators and researchers have made an effort to give effective ways.
In addition, through reading the teaching document as well as listening to lectures about English language teaching methods, the researcher is interested in task-based language teaching and supposes that it is an effective approach to solve with this problem. Nunan (1992) stated that “task learning increases student talks, makes the classroom atmosphere input”. He also pointed out that task-based language approach may play a crucial role in the communicative language classroom: a variety of tasks could be employed depending on students’ needs, interests, and language proficiency levels. The above mentioned situation has urged the researcher to conduct an action research at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology “Application of task-based language teaching in teaching speaking to the 1“ year non-English major students”.
Aims and objectives of the study This research aims at applying task-based language teaching to improve the students’ speaking skill. To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to: - find out possible explanations for the weak speaking skill of the students - find out the effect of task-based language teaching on students’ speaking skill 3. Research questions With the above purposes, the research questions are: 1. What are the possible reasons that lead to the students’ weak speaking skill? 2.
To what extent does task-based language teaching improve students’ speaking skill? 4. Scope of the study The research was conducted on the 1“ year non-English major students at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology. Regarding its scope, the research was only aimed at investigating the causes of students’ weak speaking skill and measuring the effect of task-based language teaching on the students’ speaking skill. Besides, she also focuses on communicative tasks in the speaking lesson.
Method of the study The method employed in this study is an action research, with the use of a number of instruments, namely tests, questionnaires, and interviews. Action research has been proved to be the best choice for this study because the study was aimed at improving the students’ speaking skill within a certain context. The combination of different instruments used in this research would help the researcher to gain reliable data and have a close investigation into the problems that the students were having. Significance of the Study The study is hoped to raise teachers’ awareness, especially the teachers at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology about the application of task-based language teaching as a useful method in their teaching process; inform all teachers of the benefits of task-based language teaching and suggest some effective ways of applying them in teaching English to make the lessons more interesting.
Design of the study The study is intended to consist of three parts: 1.