MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY VO THI KIM NGAN THE IMPACT OF USING TEXT SHADOWING IN DEVELOPING EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS IN AN NHON TOWN Field : Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code : 8140111 Supervisor: NGUYEN TIEN PHUNG, Ph.D BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN VÕ THỊ KIM NGÂN TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG KỸ THUẬT NGHE VÀ NHẮC LẠI ĐỒNG THỜI TRONG PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA HỌC SINH TIỂU HỌC TẠI THỊ XÃ AN NHƠN Ngành : Lý Luận và Phương Pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số : 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: TS. Nguyễn Tiến Phùng i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I confirm that the thesis conducted for my Master of Art degree, titled "THE IMPACT OF USING TEXT SHADOWING IN DEVELOPING EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS IN AN NHON TOWN", is solely my own work under the supervision of Dr. Nguyen Tien Phung, a lecturer working at Quy Nhon University. I have not submitted this thesis for any other degree at any other educational institution.
Furthermore, I can affirm that the content of this thesis does not include any previously published or authored material, except where explicitly referenced within the thesis itself. Author’s signature Vo Thi Kim Ngan ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research could not have reached its current form without the invaluable assistance, encouragement, and dedication of numerous individuals who provided support, believed in me, and motivated me to achieve my ultimate objective. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all those involved. They have enriched my knowledge and made my graduate journey a memorable chapter in my life.
I am profoundly thankful to Dr. Nguyen Tien Phung, my supervisor, for his steadfast patience, priceless mentorship, and genuine counsel throughout my educational voyage. His timely and comprehensive feedback, deep understanding, professional assistance, dedication, and unwavering commitment have served as a driving force in enabling me to accomplish my research successfully. Furthermore, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the educators, lecturers, and professors at Quy Nhon University for their patient and wholehearted efforts in imparting valuable knowledge and guidance throughout my academic journey.
I would like to extend my gratitude to the teachers and pupils at Nhon Hanh Primary School for their invaluable support and collaboration throughout the duration of this research endeavor. My closest friends and coworkers deserve special recognition since their compassion, sympathy, and support gave me the spiritual fortitude I needed to do this task. Last but not least, my parents deserve a special thank you for their guidance, unwavering love, and support, which have inspired me to pursue my education and fulfill my dual responsibilities in all facets of my life. iii ABSTRACT Most foreign language learners encounter several difficulties in pronouncing each word correctly and in speaking the whole sentences or structures fluently.
For the students at Nhon Hanh Primary School, the problem might be serious. Therefore, the researcher needs to find out a suitable technique to improve students’ speaking skills according to students’ needs and context. Research to date has focused on the issue mentioned on young learners is lacking. As a result of this, the research was aimed at investigating whether Text Shadowing has any significant effects on EFL primary school students’ pronunciation and fluency when speaking English.
The research followed a quasi-experimental method with the participant of 78 EFL 2nd Grade learners in a primary school in An Nhon Town. These participants were divided into 2 groups: the control group and the experimental group. There were three research instruments namely two speaking tests, questionnaire and interview. The findings showed that there was improvement in speaking performance among the control group and the experimental group after eight weeks.
However, the experimental group gave higher improvement than the control group in memorizing the initial letter sounds, pronouncing words more clearly and having better intonation. Besides, the majority of the participants in the experimental group held positive attitudes toward learning and improving their pronunciation and fluency by Text Shadowing technique. They all found interest and confidence in learning and speaking English. The researcher suggests that further studies in this area should consider a larger sample size to obtain a better picture of the reality of the effect of Text Shadowing technique on speaking skills.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES.
viii LIST OF FIGURES. ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of Speaking. Types of Speaking.
Components of Speaking. Problems with speaking activity. Types of spoken test. Definition and function of shadowing.
Types of shadowing. Shadowing effects on foreign language learning. STEPS TO BUILD TEXT SHADOWING ACTIVITY. INSTRUMENTS FOR DATA COLLECTION.
Read Aloud and Interaction Test. The semi-structured interview. PROCEDURE OF THE STUDY .31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. FINDINGS IN RESPONSE TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
The effects of using Text Shadowing in developing EFL primary school students’ speaking skills (Research Question 1). Students’ speaking performance between two groups before the intervention. Students’ speaking performance between two groups after the intervention. Summary of findings.
Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ use of Text Shadowing in developing speaking skills (Research Question 2). Students’ attitudes towards using Text Shadowing in improving pronunciation. Students’ attitudes towards using Text Shadowing in improving fluency. Students’ attitudes towards the attraction and motivation of the practice.
Students’ attitudes towards the content of the practice lessons. Students’ attitudes towards the amount of time for the practice 45 4. Differences in students’ attitudes towards using Text Shadowing in improving speaking skills. Students’ understanding of using Text Shadowing in learning speaking skills – its benefits and challenges.
Summary of findings. DISCUSSION OF KEY FINDINGS IN RESPONSE TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS. The effect of Text Shadowing on students’ speaking performance. Students’ attitude towards using Text Shadowing in improving speaking performance.
SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY. CONTRIBUTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH .60 APPENDICES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 2nd second EFL English as a Foreign Language L2 Second Language viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3. Background information of the participants.
Two speaking tests procedure. The Differences between Steps of Teacher-based Technique and Text Shadowing Technique. Students’ speaking performance between the two groups before intervention. Mean difference of students’ speaking performance within control group.
Mean difference of students’ speaking performance within experimental group. Mean Difference (the gain score) between Experimental and Control Group. The Results of the Paired-Samples T Test. Descriptive statistics test on student’s attitudes towards using Text Shadowing in improving speaking skills.
The Results of the Independent-Samples T Test .47 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4. Summary of participant’s speaking performance before and after the study. Aspects of pronunciation that the technique of Text Shadowing helped to improve. Aspects of fluency that the technique of Text Shadowing helped to improve.
Attraction and motivation of the practice. The attitude towards the content of the practice lessons. The attitude to the time delivery for the practice.46 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the rationale for conducting the study and outlines major components of the thesis. The main reasons for doing this research are outlined, along with aim, objectives and research questions that are addressed.
The chapter also discusses the scope and significance of the study. Finally, an overview is given of how this study is structured. RATIONALE During the time teaching English at a primary school in An Nhon Town, Binh Dinh Province for more than one year, the researcher found that the children face several difficulties in pronouncing each word correctly and in remembering the whole sentences or structures. They cannot distinguish how to pronounce one word with another.
Moreover, when they are individually asked to answer the previously learned structures aloud in front of the class, some of their voices are too faint to be heard or they cannot answer the questions. Meanwhile, few individuals have the courage to answer aloud voluntarily. These facts altogether suggest that many of these young learners might believe that they do not have the aptitude to learn English, and therefore they lack confidence in speaking that language. This statement is supported by Lin’s study (2009) reporting that some of her native Taiwanese junior high school students who were reticent to speak English because they hardly spoke English inside or outside of class thought that their pronunciation is poor, and hence they are reluctant to speak.
Such perspectives are also consistent with the researcher’s English teaching and learning experiences in An Nhon Town. Therefore, in order to improve the researcher’s primary school students’ speaking ability and to empower their confidence, teacher needs to find a suitable technique to improve students’ speaking performance according to students’ needs and context. There are many techniques to improve students’ speaking skills, one of which is the use of Text Shadowing. It is a simpler variant of shadowing technique by providing listeners or shadowers with a written text to immediately repeat or 2 simultaneously imitate what is heard.
The main difference between Text Shadowing and shadowing is that the former has text while the latter does not. In previous studies in the world (Hsieh et al., 2013; Hamada, 2014; Hamzar, 2015; Wahdini, 2015; Leonisa, 2020; Ekayati, 2020; Win, 2020; Anis, 2021), shadowing rather than Text Shadowing was used to improve college or high school students’ pronunciation, listening, speaking or reading abilities because these learners had achieved a certain (intermediate or high-intermediate) proficiency level so that they might not encounter too many difficulties when doing shadowing. Hsieh et al. (2013) discovered that self-studying and practicing shadowing with My English Tutor (MyET) enhanced word pronunciation, fluency, and intonation.
According to Hamada (2014), post-shadowing alone increased listening comprehension abilities. According to the findings of Hamzar’s (2015) study, (1) the use of shadowing approach increased students’ speaking ability in terms of accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility, and (2) the use of shadowing technique inspired students to speak English. Shadow-reading is more successful than Guided Reading, according to Wahdini (2015), and children with strong motivation have improved reading comprehension. Leonisa (2020) concluded that shadowing technique is effective on students’ pronunciation at the tenth-grade students of SMAN 1 Jetis Ponorogo.
Ekayati’s (2020) research result showed that applying the shadowing technique influences students’ listening ability in word recognition. Win (2020) concluded that shadowing is a good strategy for teaching speaking and listening skills because it helps students recognize stress patterns in speaking. Anis (2021) revealed that employing shadowing increased the content of 80 eighth-grade pupils by 34. However, fewer educational specialists in Viet Nam have recently conducted studies on shadowing technique and its usefulness for foreign language acquisition in general and skills instruction in particular.
Mai (2016) investigated the impact of shadowing in listening courses and discovered that both instructors’ and students’ attitudes indicate the technique's efficacy. According to Trang (2021), students’ memory, pronunciation, vocabulary, and awareness of growing their word banks, as well as their listening and pronunciation skills and vocabulary practice are all 3 improved by shadowing on BBC Six-Minute English. This ultimately improves their speaking and vocabulary skills. Luu (2023) discovered that speaking plus shadowing improved speaking abilities.
Most studies in Vietnam have been conducted on students at universities (Mai, 2016; Trang, 2021; Luu, 2023). In fact, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no empirical research has been conducted on EFL primary school learners to examine the effects of Text Shadowing in developing their speaking skills in Vietnam. The need for such study prompted this research. RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES 1.