VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ------ ------ ĐỖ THỊ LAN HƯƠNG USING ENGLISH READING TEXTS AS INPUT FOR SPEAKING TASKS AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY SỬ DỤNG BÀI ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH LÀM NGUỒN NGỮ LIỆU CHO CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG CÔNG NGHIỆP PHÚC YÊN MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English 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 ------ ------ ĐỖ THỊ LAN HƯƠNG USING ENGLISH READING TEXTS AS INPUT FOR SPEAKING TASKS AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY SỬ DỤNG BÀI ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH LÀM NGUỒN NGỮ LIỆU CHO CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG CÔNG NGHIỆP PHÚC YÊN MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: MA. Pham Minh Hien HANOI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration. iii Table of contents. v List of tables.
ix PART ONE: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Focus of the study. Purposes of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study. 4 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT.
6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theory of input. Definitions of input. The input hypothesis of Krashen‟s theory.
Reading texts as comprehensible input. Definition of Communicative Language Teaching. 9 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. What is speaking?.
Characteristics of speaking. Functions of speaking. The nature of teaching speaking.15 CHAPTER TWO: DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY. The overview of teaching and learning situations at Phuc Yen College of Industry.
An overview of Phuc Yen College of Industry. Teachers and teaching methods. Course books and teaching materials for teaching speaking skills. Methodology of the study.
Rationale for the use of action research. Description of subjects and participants in the study. The instruments for carrying out the study. The research questions.
The methods for the data collection. The methods for processing and analyzing the data .24 CHAPTER THREE: DATA COLLECTION AND DISCUSSION. Findings from the teacher’s classroom observation. Findings from the questionnaires .27 ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Students‟ background of learning English. Students‟ reasons for learning English. Students‟ attitude towards learning English speaking skills. Time and materials used for learning speaking at school.
Factors that make students feel difficult in learning speaking. Students‟ desire from speaking lessons. Students‟ responses to question 1. Students‟ responses to question 2.
Students‟ responses to questions 3, 4. Findings from the pre-test and the post-test. Students’ difficulties in learning speaking skills. The effects of English reading texts used as input for speaking tasks .39 PART THREE: CONCLUSION.
Summary of the findings. Implications and suggestions for teaching speaking using English reading texts as input for speaking tasks. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further study. IV iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
VI iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Students‟ background of learning English 27 Table 2 Students‟ time of learning English 28 Table 3 Students‟ reasons for learning English 29 Table 4 Students‟ attitude towards speaking skills 29 Table 5 Time for learning speaking at school 30 Table 6 Materials used for learning speaking 31 Table 7 Students‟ difficulties in learning speaking 31 Table 8 Students‟ desire from speaking lessons 32 Table 9 Students‟ responses to question 1 (Questionnaire No.2) 33 Table 10 Students‟ responses to question 2 (Questionnaire No.2) 34 Table 11 Students‟ responses to questions 3, 4 (Questionnaire No.2) 35 Table 12 Results from pre-test 36 Table 13 Results from post-test 37 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Nowadays, English has been considered as an international language that is used in every field of life. As a result, English is the foreign language that is most widely used and taught in all over the world as well as in Vietnam. However, how to teach the language effectively to enable students to use it successfully in communication is really a big question faced by all English teachers.
The ability of students communicate naturally in English is one of the long term goals that language teachers would like to achieve in class. According to Bygate (1987), the problem in teaching a foreign language or a second language is to prepare the students to use the language. In mastering English, the students should be able to know and apply four language skills such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing, because they would make someone become perfect in using language. Indeed, it is a demanding task for language teachers to provide sufficient inputs for students to be competent speakers of English.
Speaking is one of the language skills that should be mastered by language learners. With speaking, the students can make a good communication to the others. For most people, mastering the art of speaking is the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language. A successful language learner is measured by their ability in carrying out conversation in daily life, therefore, speaking is a main part of language.
The fluent speaking will be a positive impact for all people in studying language. Hence, in teaching and learning of language, speaking should be the first purpose in developing language in all levels of education. As a teacher of Phuc Yen College of Industry, through self-observation and my own five-year teaching experience, the author sees that during speaking lessons, classroom interaction is restricted. Usually, students feel insecure about their level of English and they face problems communicating as well as expressing themselves in the target language.
As a result, few students in the class get involved in the 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com activities conducted by teachers while others rather remain silent as they are in fear of making mistakes and do not know what and how to speak in speaking lessons. Obviously, one of the biggest challenges to the teacher is to find effective ways to improve their students‟ communicative skills. This paper addresses this issue by using English reading texts as a means to provide comprehensible input in learning speaking skills because reading texts are a valuable source providing information, grammar structure, vocabulary, etc for students in developing their English competence. While a considerable amount of research has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using reading texts to develop students‟ reading skills, little has been particularly done on its effectiveness in improving students‟ speaking skills.
For these reasons, the author decided to conduct a study on “Using English reading texts as input for speaking tasks at Phuc Yen College of Industry”. This study primarily examines the students‟ difficulties in their learning speaking skills. It then investigates the effectiveness of English reading texts used as input for speaking tasks. The author does hope that this study will be of help for those who want to find effective ways of teaching and learning speaking skills.
Focus of the study The study focuses on effects of using English reading texts as input for speaking tasks to carry out communicative classroom tasks in the lessons of speaking skills employed by English teachers to enhance the effect of using it as a means to provide comprehensible input in teaching and learning speaking skills. Purposes of the study The purpose of the study is to improve English speaking skills for first-year non-English majors at Phuc Yen College of Industry. It has three purposes as follows: - To identify students‟ difficulties in their English speaking skills. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - To exploit English reading texts used as input for speaking tasks in speaking lessons to improve their speaking skills.
- To justify the effectiveness of using English reading texts as input for speaking tasks in teaching speaking skills to first-year non-English majors. Research questions Regarding the importance of speaking teaching, purposes of the research, this study is accomplished to find the answer to the question “How effectively are English reading texts used as input for speaking tasks exploited to improve first- year non-English majors’ speaking skills at Phuc Yen College of Industry?” Specifically, the study addressed the following three research questions: - What are the students‟ difficulties in English speaking? - Are English reading texts used as input for speaking tasks effective in teaching non-English majors‟ speaking skills? - If yes, how effective is it? 1. Scope of the study The study concentrates on improving first-year non-English majors at Phuc Yen College of Industry by using English reading texts as input for speaking tasks. Within its scope, the research was only aimed at justifying the effectiveness of using English reading texts as input in teaching English speaking skills to first-year non-English majors.
Only accuracy of speaking skills will be considered in order to evaluate students‟ improvement after using English reading texts. Methods of the study This study is conducted as an action research because it is aimed at improving first-year non-English majors‟ speaking skills. In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely class observation, questionnaire and audio-recording is used. The combination of different instruments used in this 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com research would help to gain reliable data and help the research have a close investigation into the problem that the students were having.
The data collected from the observation will be analyzed by qualitative method, and the data collected through the questionnaires and audio-recording will be analyzed by quantitative method. Design of the study The study is presented in three parts: Introduction, development and conclusion. Part one INTRODUCTION introduces the rationale, focus, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study. Part two DEVELOPMENT includes three chapters: Chapter one is the literature reviews.
This chapter intends to set up the framework of the study. It focuses on the nature of language skills and communication. Some discussions on definitions of input, the input hypothesis of Krashen‟s theory, reading texts as comprehensible input are presented. Some principles in teaching speaking are also mentioned.
Chapter two includes two sections. The first section presents the local situation at Phuc Yen College of Industry, with a brief description of the speaking learning and teaching conditions, students, teachers and the course books used for teaching speaking to non-English majors. The second section describes the research methodology including the description of the subjects, data collection instruments and procedures. Chapter three presents the results collected from the self-observation, questionnaires and audio-recordings in the form of tables and figures.
This is followed by the discussion and analysis of the data. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part three CONCLUSION mentions the implications and suggestions for teaching speaking using English reading texts as input for speaking tasks. Recommendations for further research are also mentioned in this part. PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Theory of input 1. Definitions of input 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com According to Encyclopedia II (2005), input is information processing. In information processing, input refers to either information received or the process of receiving it. In human-computer interaction, input is the information produced by the user with the purpose of controlling the computer program.
The user interface determines what kinds of input the program accepts. Input is an indispensable component in second language acquisition (SLA). According to Ellis (1985), input may be provided by interaction with native speakers in a natural setting or by formal instruction. Input can be spoken or written, and it is the data that learners use to determine the rules of the second language.