Graduation Thesis: English Speaking skills teaching methods for elementary learner at Nam Sao Language center

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This research used observation, interview for teachers, questionnaires as the techniques of collecting the data. This paper aims to find ways to teach speaking skills to students at the elementary level and to offer methods and activities that are applied in teaching this speaking skill.

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Nội dung Text: Graduation Thesis: English Speaking skills teaching methods for elementary learner at Nam Sao Language center

1 DECLARATION “I am TRIEU THI HUYEN TRANG hereby declare that the work presented in this Graduation Thesis is uniquely prepared by me.” “I also confirm that, the thesis paper is only prepared for my university requirements not for any other purpose. It“might not be used with the interest of the opposite party of the corporation.” _______________________________ TRIEU THI HUYEN TRANG ID: 97011501064 Course: 8 Class: 15DTA Major in English Language The Saigon International University Date submitted: ………………………………………….. Signed : ………………………………………. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “During the implementation of this thesis, I have received much help from the people who have helped me.”Without them I could not have completed this thesis, so I wanted to express my deep gratitude to those who helped me.”
2 “First, I would like to express our gratitude to the teachers of the Saigon International University who taught me and helped me throughout the course Special thanks to Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy of the University who provided constant guidance and very useful advice for me to complete this thesis.” “Next, I would like to thank to my classmates who share and help me during the study at the Saigon International University. I also thank the teachers and students of Nam Sao Foreign Language center who have helped me in the process of surveying and data collection in this thesis.” “Finally, I really thank my family and friends who have shared, encouraged me during the learning process and the implementation of this thesis.” Thank you very much! LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Students’ awareness of the learning English Chart 4.2: Students’ interest in learning English speaking Chart 4.3: Students’ looking at difficulties of English speaking skill Chart 4.4: The most favorite skill of students in learning English Chart 4.5: Suitable level of English speaking skills teaching method for students Chart 4.6: How students feel about the English current method Chart 4.7: Students’ desire for teaching English Chart 4.8: Student’s think about activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills Chart 4.9: Student’s favorite activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills
3 Chart 4.10. Students’ frequency of participation in speaking learning hours TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT “The current study focuses on English speaking skills teaching methods for Elementary learners and the solution for teaching speaking skills at Nam Sao Language center.”Speaking “is one of the English skills which we should use the most suitable teaching methodologies.”In“Ho Chi Minh city, there are lots of English center with various methods to teach speaking skill for different kinds of students.”This research aims to describe the way in teaching speaking at the elementary learners of Nam Sao Language center.”The“subjects of this research are the English teacher and the Elementary learners of Nam Sao Language center.”This“research used observation, interview for teachers, questionnaires as the techniques of collecting the data.”This “paper aims to find ways to teach speaking skills to students at the elementary level and to offer methods and activities that are applied in teaching this speaking skill.”Teachers“should create more activities in the classroom to help students talk to each other in English and provide students with a variety of lessons or a plentiful of essential topics to be more interested in learning.”Students“must encourage and become familiar with everyday English speaking, encouraging students to speak English a hundred percent in class to create an effective English speaking environment.” Keywords: Teaching methods, speaking skill, teaching speaking, problems in speaking
4 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale “In the 21st century, the countries all over the world are tending to develop basing on international cooperation.”The“English language has become crucial to the way we interact with the different people in the world; not being able to communicate in English imposes what seem to be formidable limitations on us.”With“English we are able to bridge cultural, economic, and even social gaps, in turn we are able to better understand and tolerate each other.” “Therefore, it is not just important but in fact crucial that the English language be learnt by all individuals.”However,“this also raised an issue that foreign language education should be taken seriously in which English is the most popular language in use.”Teaching“and learning English, thus, are very important and necessary because mastering English seem to be one of the best and the shortest ways for us to have a great deal of opportunities to reach the success of life.”English learners,“from elementary pupils to students, from workers to government employers study English with the interest and enthusiasm.”As“for Vietnamese students, especially the elementary learners have many difficulties in learning and practicing English speaking skill.”They“also fall into confusion when speaking English because of their lack of professional knowledge, confidence, and surely good learning methods.” “The goal of teaching speaking, surely, is to improve the oral production of the students.”Vietnam's“economy is growing, requiring human resources to know foreign languages, especially English, students should improve and promote their communication skill so that they can express themselves and learn to follow the social and cultural rules
5 appropriating in each communicative circumstances.”Speaking“for schools has not apparently been paid much attention.”Teachers’ role“is not only to create a warm and friendly classroom but also to provide students with effective and plentiful activities.” “These factors mentioned have aroused my ambition to carry out the study of: “English Speaking skills teaching methods for elementary learner at Nam Sao Language center” to study.” 1.2. Significance of the study “Our world is becoming internationally.”The“majority of people find opportunity to interact with each other easily.”Thus,“communication is much needed and English paramount importance is chosen as a global language.”In“this claim, English speaking teaching method is very important.”So“we need have a suitable English speaking skill teaching methods to improving English communication for learners.”For“this purpose, we deal with the English speaking skill teaching method in Nam Sao English center.”The“result of this study may offer a new insight to teachers in evaluating many aspects of teaching and learning in different ways and bring new air to English classes.” 1.3. Scope and limitation of the study “The scopes of the study in this research are limited as follows:” 1. “This study aimed to document the teaching methods in speaking class of 5 teachers who are teaching at Nam Sao Language center with Elementary level. Investigating " The solution for teaching speaking skills at Nam Sao center’’, This study is expected to make certain contributions to the related populations including teacher teaching speaking skills, and researcher of the same subjects.”
6 2. “The subject of the research will be limited to 30 elementary learners of two classes at Nam Sao Language center on February 28th, 2019 to May 21st, 2019” 1.4 Research questions “The current study tries to find answers to the following questions:” 1. “What methods are used in speaking class?” 2. “What are the advantages and disadvantages when teaching English speaking skill?” 3. “What are the solutions for teaching speaking skills at Nam Sao language center?” 1.5 Design of the study This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Chapter I: Introduction This chapter indicated the rationale for choose this topic, pointing out the aim, the scope and limitation as well as the methods of the study, and the research questions. This study focused on English speaking teaching methods for the elementary learners at Nam Sao Language Center Chapter II: Literature Review In this chapter, it provides some theoretical foundations on issues related to the definition of teaching communication language (CLT), characteristics of the teaching English speaking skills as well as the role of teacher and students in communicative language teaching, the role of speaking in language teaching and learning, indicate methods of teaching speaking and some problems in teaching speaking. Chapter III: Methodology This chapter carried out the research setting, the methodology, the instrument and the subject of the study. There also showed the results of the survey questionnaires and interview face to
7 face designed to find out the teaching methods that teachers and students at Nam Sao Language center have implied in teaching and learning Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion The specification of results showed information about the method of teaching speaking skills. From issues, suggestions for methods to teach speaking skills to help elementary learners improve their speaking skills so teachers and students can choose the best way to learn and teach Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendation This final chapter summarizes of research, and provides a way to teach speaking skills and activities that should be applied in the classroom and recommendations for teachers and students. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Definitions of terminologies 2.1.1. Speaking skill “Speaking skill plays an important role in learners’ learning process.”It“is considered an important criterion to judge learners’ achievement in learning a language.”They“often evaluate their success in language learning by how well they can speak that language.”Therefore,“if they cannot learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language class, they may soon get demotivated and bored with learning.”On“the contrary, if the teachers can apply interesting activities in the class, English lessons can become very funny and interesting.”
8 2.1.1.1. Concepts of speaking “There are many different concepts of speaking by many different linguistics, however, most of them agree that speaking is very important to human communication.”Bygate“(1997) states that speaking is a skill which is very important and requires as much attention as other skills, in both first and second languages.”In“order to carry out most of their basic interactions and transactions, learners need to be able to speak, and express their ideas to other people.”He“also emphasizes that “interaction is the use of language for maintaining communication between participants” and “interaction skills are skills of deciding what to say, when to say it and how to say it clearly” (Bygate, 1997, p.115).”Therefore,“in learning speaking skill, learners are required to know not only how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence or grammatical competence), but also when, why and in what ways language is produced (sociolinguistic competence).” “According to Brown, Burns & Joyce, speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning concerning three periods: producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997).” “Chaney and Burk (1998, p.13) states that speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in many different contexts.” “Brown (1994) affirms that interaction is the heart of communication; it is what communication is all about, for example in the cases of sending messages; receiving them; interpreting them in a specific context; negotiating meanings; and collaborating to accomplish certain purposes.”And“interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other.”
9 “In Byrne’s view (1986), speaking skill is one of two ways of oral communication process, and is the productive skill.”The“speaker has to encode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode (or interpret) the message.” “According to Florez (1999), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.”It“is often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving.” “In short, there are quite many different definitions of speaking, each of them has their own good points and strong points.”However,“in this study the researcher decided to follow the concept of speaking by Bygate (1997) which means that speaking not only involves grammatical competence but also sociolinguistic competence.” 2.1.1.2. Characteristics of speaking “According to Bygate (1997), speaking involves two kinds of routines in the process of communicating.”They “are information routines and interactional ones.”Information“routines may be described to involve two sub-routines: expository and evaluation.”The“former includes description, narration, comparison and instruction.”The“latter consists of explanation, prediction, justification, preference and decision.” “Interaction routines are routines based not so much on sequences of kinds of term occurring in typical kinds of interactions such as telephone conversation, interview conversations casual encounters, conversations at parties, lessons, radio or television interviews, all tend to be organized in characteristic ways.” “In Brown’s opinion (1983), speaking has three characteristics: the first one is that its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for
10 speaking.”It“is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.”However,“speech is not always unpredictable.”The “second one is that speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (“linguistic competence”), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (“sociolinguistic competence”).”Last“but not least, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language.” “Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways.”The“reason is that almost all people can speak; therefore, they just take speaking skill too much for granted.”He“also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills.”Learners “often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic interactions and transactions.”Bygate “also highly appreciates speaking by stating that speaking is the medium through which much of language is learnt.” “To sum up, it is undeniable that speaking is the key to successful communication.”By“considering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners require, teachers can help learners to improve their speaking skill.” 2.1.2. English teaching methods for elementary learners “There are three main phases in the teaching of a speaking lesson.”The “way the lesson progresses differs according to how much English students know or how much English they see, hear and use outside the classroom.”However,”the final objective of a speaking lesson is always to help students speak English more confidently in a wide variety of situations.”Byrne“(1991) points out that there are three phases to develop learners' oral ability, which are as follows:” Phase 1: “The presentation phase”
11 “In this phase, teachers play a center role in learning and teaching process.”They“work as an information provider as they know English, select teaching materials and the ways to present the materials.”And“in this first phase, students usually observe and listen to the teacher, i.e. they passively receive information.”As“we know, oral materials are written mainly in two forms, which are dialogues and prose.”Thus,“it is obviously that these two different forms need presenting in different ways.” “Byrne, D. (1991) summaries ten different steps to present a dialogue as follows:” 1. “Establish setting by using pictures.”At“this step, English is used as much as possible.” 2. “Draw out learners’ experience related to situation.” 3. “Explain some key words.” 4. “Set the listening task by asking key information of the dialogue” 5. “Ask learners to listen without looking at the dialogue.” 6. “Allow learners to have a look at their book when necessary.” 7. “Ask learners to listen and repeat.” 8. “Ask learners to pick up difficulties and explain them.” 9. “Ask them to practice (role- play)” 10. “Ask them to dramatize the dialogue.” “From the steps above, we can see that they are perfectly and logically arranged.”However,“not all of them need to use for presenting a dialogue, it depends on the learners’ English competence.”
12 “To present a prose, Byrne (1991:26) suggests that teachers should use the following nine steps:” 1. “Introduce the topic by asking learners to look at the pictures or asking them about related things.” 2. “Introduce the text. New words and structures are given.” 3. “Provide relevant practice.” 4. “Set the reading task: make questions.” 5. “Ask the learners to read the passage in silence and find the answers.” 6. “Ask learners to read again aloud and ask for the answer.” 7. “Explain difficulties they still have.” 8. “Do silent reading again because learners need to go on with step nine.” 9. “Get the learners to talk about what they have to learn based on the previous answers.” “To increase the learners’ motivation, these steps should also be used suitably.” “Phase 2: The practice phase” “This phase is the time for learners to do most of talking as they are provided maximum amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities to improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking.”The“learners, at this phase, answer the teacher’s guided questions, discuss with their partners to find new ideas related to the topic.” “Phase 3: The production phase” “This is the phase in which learners are given chances to speak English freely.”Being“in a real situation, learners use English by themselves, not depend on the
13 teacher.”They“can develop their own ideas and their friends’ ideas.”A“real chance to speak English takes place when the learners can use English naturally for themselves, not for their teacher.”Pair“work and group work are of great importance and effectiveness at this phase as all learners have chance to participate in talks: Moreover, this can save a great deal of time and learners seem to be more confident.” “In short, to improve speaking ability for learners in the process of teaching speaking, teachers should follow these phases orderly.”However,“the practical application much depends on such factors as the time available, the target learners’ level and the material used, etc…” “The influence of age related to teaching methods” “Elementary learner, students' bodies are in a period of changing or speaking, specifically, incomplete systems.”Therefore,”the strength of the body is still low, so the children cannot do long, simple and boring movements, making the students unable to concentrate and not want to study.” - “Primary students are very excited and like to interact with something, a certain phenomenon, especially strong emotional images.” - “Primary students are often active and curious about new things, and then they become bored.”Therefore,“in teaching teachers must use many teaching aids, enhance practice, organize alternate games. . . to reinforce insights.”
14 2.3. Review of previous works 2.3.1. Research works abroad “Overseas projects in this area can include: P.V.Zimin, M.I. Kondakop, N.I. Saxerđôlốp in "School management issues", V.A Xukhomlinxki in "Some leadership experiences of high school".” “Talk about the importance of teachers in the context of education in the twenty-first century, Dr. Raya Roy Singh, a renowned educator in India, a multi-year education expert with UNESCO Asia-Pacific region. A pretty impressive comment: "Teachers play a decisive role in education and especially in reorienting education".” “Discussing the teaching of English in schools, Jeremy Harmer - the leading English teaching expert in the world has studied the method of teaching English as well as the training of English teachers.”He“has hosted many conferences around the world on English teaching methods.”According“to him, teachers of English even though they are well trained must always learn and arrange for teachers to train in accordance with their abilities and strengths to better meet the teaching. [41, p.425].” “The author Penny studied the method and experience in language teaching.”According“to him, teachers who graduated from pedagogical school are just a starting point, only meeting the initial conditions to teach. Seniority of teaching does not determine efficiency and career advancement.”To“gain experience and professionalism, successful teachers must constantly learn and equip themselves with additional knowledge throughout the life of teaching. [43, tr.317).” “In particular, author Susan Haliwell introduced effective methods to teach English for students in the Teaching English in the Primary Classroom.”
15 2.3.2. Domestic research projects “Management process of teaching to ensure and improve the quality of training is the goal to be achieved in the teaching process, teaching management.”This“is a difficult job and takes a lot of time for HT people.”There“are many authors, educational managers have been interested in studying teaching activities, management of teaching activities, especially foreign language subjects, including English subjects to find out better management measures.” “In Vietnam, many authors study school management, teaching activities such as: Ha Si Ho (1987) Lectures on school management, Tran Kiem (1997) Basic problems of management science education, Nguyen Van Le (1985).”School“management science ... there are many works going into the study of each field of school management work such as: Cao Duy Binh (1999).”Planning“school activities, Ho Van Lien. Management of pedagogical process, Vu Trong Vy (2004) Management of facilities and equipment for teaching at high schools.”About“English teaching activities: Chau Thi Hoang, Nguyen Van Vinh, Phan Nguyen Hong Diem, Vuong Thi Kim Hoang ... the authors go deep and solve different aspects but are related to the content of operational management. HT's teaching.” “Author Nguyen Ngoc Quang has identified: "Teaching and education in unity is the central activity of the school", "The school management is actually the management of the teacher's labor process ...". [8].” “Bui Minh Hien, Vu Ngoc Hai, affirmed: "School management and management of agencies in the education system are very important for the success or failure of education". [23].Mai Quoc Lien said: "It is imperative to have a foreign language strategy to cover English in national schools" [27, p.6].”
16 “In summary, there are many authors in Vietnam as well as abroad who have studied and introduced many measures to manage teaching activities in schools including English subjects.”However,“in the field of management, the teaching of English at the TH level has not been mentioned by many authors.”The“problem we posed in this thesis is to understand the reality of teaching English in some high schools.”Thereby,“propose a number of appropriate management solutions that are feasible and necessary to contribute to improving the quality of teaching English subjects right from the TH level.” CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1. Research method “Methods of theoretical research” “Collect materials, read scientific books, magazines, refer to research projects related to the topic. From there, sum up it to become a theoretical and practical basis for the study of the topic.” “Observations” “During the research, observation plays a helpful part the classrooms' environment, atmosphere, pupils' attitudes as well as teachers methods.”From“that, the study can be conducted with high validity and reliability, Classroom observations were carried out in five 45-minute sessions in which the observer looked at the general view of the classroom, listened to both teachers questions and pupils' responds, and took note on everything considered crucial during the process of teaching and learning speaking skills.”In“this case, the author acted as both a teacher and a researcher”
17 “The study consisted of class participation and observations, questionnaires and interviews.”In“order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the research collected information both from the teachers of English and the Elementary learners who have been teaching and studying at Nam Sao Language Center.” - “Questionnaire for students at Nam Sao Language Center.” - “Interview the teachers at Nam Sao Language center” -“This method is conducted through the collection of information by "survey questionnaires" for some managers and some teachers and students at Nam Sao Foreign Language Center.” 3.2. Sampling “Participants in the survey included thirty elementary learners aged six – eight years old and five teachers at the Nam Sao English center located on Thu Duc ward, Ho Chi Minh city, from the same school.”It“is assumed that they all of the elementary learners are those the author got to know during the three-month internship at Nam Sao English Center.”Thus,“it is no doubt that they are considered the most important factors throughout this study.” 3.2.1. Description of the teachers at Nam Sao language center “The majority of the teachers at Nam Sao Language center is so young.”At “Nam Sao Language center, there are about 20 teachers of English language (about 20% are native speakers from the United States and Australia).”The“teachers are those who already had bachelor degrees; therefore, they are fluent and skillful in teaching English in general and in teaching speaking skill in particular.”Although“many teachers are quite young and even some of them have just graduated from universities, they are very active and always bring lively lesson periods to their pupils.”On “the contrary, these teachers may not have enough
18 experience to cope with pupils’ obstacles in learning English to communicate.”A“the same time, there are several limitations such as time for each period that also contribute to the hardships that teachers from develop speaking skill to their pupils.” 3.2.2 Description of the pupils at Nam Sao language center “The majority of primary school students in Nam Sao language center are aged 6 to 11 years old.”Students“at this level, they use Family and Friends Book, Cambridge, University Press, workbook Edition. With this program, they learned 4 skills of listening and speaking. Once a week, learn with native teachers. In general, Nam Sao students aim to take the curriculum to gain enough knowledge and to take tests on campus.”However,“there are some learners who can communicate and pronounce correctly.”It“seems that the teaching and the environment improve their English speaking.”Or“perhaps, their individual difficulties in attitudes, motivation and studying methods are the cause of potential problem arising during the class.” 3.3 Research tools “The information was collected through a questionnaire for elementary learners and interview the teachers at Nam Sao Language centre.”The“surveys were created on Google Form and face to face interviews with 5 teachers so as to obtain more clarifications and insights into the data provided by the questionnaires.”It“conducted on July 10th,2019” “It was observed that many pupils at this centers were very active and eager to learn English, especially when it involved speaking.”Nevertheless,“there were pupils who were not confident enough to speak freely and naturally.”Those“ones were still afraid and unwilling to participate in speaking activities and consequently, they were too shy and embarrassed to raise their voices.”It“was unfortunate for the author to witness that circumstance because she knew speaking skill is extremely essential to any foreign language.”Therefore,“noting from
19 that situation, the writer is motivated to carry out this project in order to research, experience, and explore both the issues that pupils have to face with and the solutions that teachers could implement.”After“all the author's wish is to create the most desirable environment for all students to improve and enhance English speaking skill, the one that both teachers and learners struggle a lot to achieve and satisfy.” 3.4 Data collection “To reach the primary purposes of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen as main method for data collection for this particular research.” “The questionnaires consist of two main parts with the first one intended to explore the teachers' and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill, and the second one dedicated to identify speaking problems and techniques used by these teachers and pupils.”Survey“questionnaire with 10 questions is for the elementary learners to identify their opinions on their speaking lessons, the factors affecting their speaking competence, and to find out their expectations to achieve better speaking skills.”The“data was collected in eight weeks, from February 28 to May 21, 2019.” 3.4.1 Observations “During the research, observation plays a helpful part to support the author in observing the classroom’ environment, atmosphere, student’s attitudes as well as teacher’S methods.”From“that, the study can be conducted with high validity and reliability.”Classroom“observations were carried out in forty-five minutes in which the observer looked at the general view of the classroom, listen to both teacher’s questions and students’ responds and took note on everything considered crucial during the process of teaching and learning speaking skills.”In“this case, the author acted as both a teacher and a researcher.”
20 3.4.2 Surveys “The questionnaire for elementary learners.”The“survey questionnaire includes 10 questions (in English) and they are numbered from 1 to 10. in the question, there are 3 ,4 or more than options.”The“informants can choose more than one choice.”The“questionnaire is parted into three parts: The first section have a question with three options, taking about Students’ awareness of learning English. They are marked “X” into the box.” “The second section contains three questions (question 2,3 & 4) give their attitudes about the English speaking skills teaching methods at Nam Sao English center” “The third sections with 3 questions (question 5,6&7) asks students about their feeling activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skills.”The“four section with 3 questions (question 8,9 &10) talked about students ‘feeling activities applied during the hours of teaching English speaking skill.” “From this survey, I can find out an appropriate method of learning ad practicing English speaking skill.”The“survey is base for my study “the method of teaching speaking skill for elementary learners at the Nam Sao English center.” 3.4.3 Face-to- face interview for teachers “During the week following the questionnaire, direct interviews with the teachers at Nam Sao Language center was carried out by means of informal talks and discussions to clearly obtain more information about teachers’ responses.”The“interviews, participated by just 10 teachers, were conducted to exploit further data that probably cannot be revealed through observations as well as supplement more knowledge about the issues mentioned in the questionnaire.”The“questions for interviews were presented in a paper.”