VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- ĐOÀN THỊ LÊ DESIGNING SOME SUPPLEMENTARY SPEAKING ACTIVITIES TO THE COURSE BOOK “LIFELINES ELEMENTARY” FOR THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF VIETNAM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE OF TECHNIQUE – CRAFT ART THIẾT KẾ MỘT SỐ HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI BỔ SUNG CHO GIÁO TRÌNH “LIFELINES ELEMENTARY” CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG NGHỀ KỸ THUẬT MỸ NGHỆ VIỆT NAM M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: PHAN THI ̣ VÂN QUYÊN, M.A HA NOI - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration……………………………………………………………………. iv List of figures, tables and charts……………………………………………… v Table of contents……………………………………………………………… vi Part A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Design of the study. 7 Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.
Language skills and speaking. Evaluation and supplementation of speaking activities and materials. Evaluation of the activities and materials. Supplementation of activities and materials.
Definition of supplementation. Forms of supplementation…………………………………………… 16 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The research context. The English teaching and learning situation at VVC TCA.
The students at VVC TCA. The teachers at VVC TCA. An overview of the course book “Lifelines Elementary (Tom Hutchinson, Oxford University Press, 2002). Subjects of the study.
Data collection instruments. Procedure of data collection. 27 Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Students‟ background of English learning:.
Current situation of English teaching and learning. The evaluation of the speaking activities in the course book by teachers and students. Students‟ needs when learning speaking skills. 33 Chapter 4: DESIGNING SOME SUPPLEMENTARY SPEAKING ACTIVITIES TO THE COURSE BOOK “LIFELINES ELEMENTARY” AT VVC TCA.
Supplementary speaking activities for unit 1 and unit 2. Supplementary speaking activities for unit 3. Supplementary speaking activities for unit 4 & Extension unit 3 and 4 .39 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Supplementary speaking activities for unit 5.
Supplementary speaking activities for unit 6. Supplementary speaking activities for unit 7. Supplementary speaking activities for unit 11. Supplementary speaking activities for unit 12.
Supplementary speaking activities for unit 14. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS VVC TCA Vietnam Vocational College of Technique and Craft – Art CLT Communicative Language Teaching GE General English ESP English for Specific Purposes MA Master of Art 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS Page 1. Figures 5 Figure 1: The four – macro skills………………………………………….
Charts 26 Chart 1: Students‟ background of learning English………………………. Chart 2: Frequency of using supplementary speaking activities designed by 26 teachers……………………………………………………………………. Chart 3: Evaluation about the topics of speaking activities………………. 29 Chart 4: Evaluation about the types of speaking activities………………… 29 Chart 5: Evaluation about the level of difficulty of speaking activities…….
30 Chart 6: Evaluation about the number of speaking activities………………. 31 Chart 7: Students‟ preference to practice speaking in class………………. Tables Table 1: Patterns of speaking activities teachers often use to teach speaking 27 skills in classroom…………………………………………………………. Table 2: Difficulties students encounter when learning the speaking section 28 in the course book………………………………………………………….
Table 3: Students‟ response to supplementary speaking activities………… 32 Table 4: Students‟ and teachers‟ preference for the types of speaking 33 activities……………………………………………………………………. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Because of the economic development and the social, cultural integration between the countries, English has become a very popular communicative means in the modern world. In Vietnam, English is considered as one of the most vital working tools in most of the career requirements.
English language has been taught and learnt widely for a long time in Vietnam. However, most of the learners cannot use English naturally and frequently and they have not achieved the high communicative effect in English. There exist many reasons for this situation. In the high school, English has been taught as the compulsory subject, but learners have not been motivated in using English as the essential means.
In addition, although learners can be aware of the importance of English, they have not been put the suitable environment to communicate in English. The other reason is that the way of the English teaching. The Vietnamese teachers of English have been facing many arising difficulties. Materials used in teaching are one of the shortcomings constraining the effect of English teaching.
Most of the teachers followed all of the activities in the course book without adapting and designing to suit students‟ abilities, levels and needs. Although learners spent a lot of time on learning English, their linguistic competence, especially the speaking skill, has not been effective. As a result, the appropriate choice of the materials as well as the language activities is very important for learners to improve language skill. The major purpose of teaching and learning English has focused on the development of communicative approach.
All the speaking activities should be designed with the aim of helping students find out the easy way to practice 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com speaking English effectively. It is the fact that students felt bored with the current materials and have not learned how to speak at the time of high school, so their speaking ability is mostly poor. Thus, when teaching English, teachers should concentrate on the communicative competence in order to help students develop the English speaking skill better in daily life. Thus, it gives the author great motivation to choose the study “Designing some supplementary speaking activities to the course book “Lifelines Elementary” for the 1st year students at VVC TCA”.
Aims of the study The main aims of the study are as the following: - To review theories of teaching speaking skills, especially speaking activities and supplementary materials. - To evaluate speaking section of the course book “Lifelines Elementary”. - To clarify the reasons why the speaking activities in the course book should be added to suit students‟ levels and needs. - To design some appropriate supplementary speaking activities to the course book “Lifelines Elementary” for the 1st year students of the Vietnamese Vocational College of Technique – Craft Art.
Research questions The following research questions will be stated in the study to get the above objectives: 1. How do teachers and students at VVC TCA evaluate speaking section of the course book “Lifelines Elementary”? 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.What difficulties and needs do the 1st year students have in learning speaking skills on the course book “Lifelines Elementary” at VVC TCA? 3.What needs do the 1st year students have in learning speaking skills on the course book “Lifelines Elementary” at VVC TCA? 4. Scope of the study There are many different features related to speaking activities used to teach speaking skills. However, my study is mainly focused on designing some supplementary speaking activities to the course book for the 1st year students based on the analysis of their difficulties and needs in learning speaking in order to create a more interesting, active speaking environment and thus, improve students‟ speaking skills.
Research methods This thesis is carried out using the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Survey questionnaires, observations, interview are used to collect data for the research. - Questionnaires are delivered to 100 VVC TCA 1st students and 5 teachers to find out the current English teaching and learning situation, their responses as well as their needs in learning speaking and to find out the kinds of the speaking activities which interest students the most. - Personal observation, informal interviews are implemented to increase the reliability of the obtained information from the questionnaires and to provide more subjective information relating to the speaking activities used by teachers.
- The data collected are analyzed. The findings are critically discussed and then used as the basis and suggestions for designing some supplementary speaking activities. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: Part A: INTRODUCTION presents an overview of the study with rationale aim, scope, research questions and methods of the study.
Part B: DEVELOPMENT consists of 4 chapters: Chapter 1: Theoretical background provides some theoretical background related to speaking skill and speaking activities as well as the supplementary process of speaking activities. Chapter 2: Methodology focuses on the subjects, research methods, data collection instruments and procedures of data collection applied in the study. Chapter 3: Data Analysis and Findings In this chapter, an analysis on the students‟ background of learning English; the evaluation of the speaking activities and needs in learning and teaching speaking skills by students and teachers is also carried out through data analysis and presentation according to research. In addition, the findings and discussion are illustrated clearly.
Chapter 4: Designing supplementary speaking activities In this chapter, some helpful samples of supplementary speaking activities are presented due to the speaking section of each unit in the course book “Lifelines Elementary”. Part C: CONCLUSION presents the concluding summary of main findings and some recommendations on designing some supplementary speaking activities in the study together with the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Language skills and speaking 1.
Language skills In language teaching, we often mention the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) in term of their direction and modality. Widdowson (1978: 1) states that “The aims of a language teaching course are very often defined with reference to the four language skills: understanding speech (listening), speaking, reading and writing”. However, speaking is the skill generating more controversy. According to Savignon (1991) and Byrne (1991), speaking and writing are considered as the productive skills in which the learners generate language while listening and reading are known as the receptive skills whose purpose is to comprehend or understand what someone might be saying and writing.
Moreover, Byrne (1991: 8) shows the relationship of language skills through the following table: Figure 1: The four – macro skills Spoken language Understanding Speaking Receptive skills Reading Writing Productive skills Written language In addition, Ur (1996: 120) states that speaking seems intuitively the most important and whoever can be able to use a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language. It is certain that students are good at speaking skill; he might feel confident and motivated to use English in classroom and real - life communication without inhibition. Moreover, he will be ready for participation 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com in every different, flexible situation. This thing leads the other skills improved as well.
The learner who feels interested in speaking means that he will have a high motivation in learning English. It will certainly foster his language competence. Thus, teachers should provide students the supportive speaking environment to help them have higher willingness in speaking English. This depends so much on the way teachers creatively prepare more and more effective speaking activities in each lesson.
Furthermore, language skills are often related to each other in use. In learning English as a foreign language, students cannot develop speaking skill if they don‟t improve listening skill. To have a good communication, people must understand everything what is spoken. Furthermore, a variety of knowledge is illustrated while learners make communication.
In short, all the four skills are equally important to the learners. It cannot be denied that speaking skill must not be isolated from the others. Certainly, learners‟ success in language learning, together with the effectiveness of their English course is evaluated on the basis of how much they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency.