MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY

PHAN THÀNH NAM

APPLYING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES

TO AN EFL SPEAKING CLASS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’

SPEAKING PARTICIPATION

AN ACTION RESEARCH ON 1ST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS

AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT

OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER IN ENGLISH STUDIES

SUPERVISOR: PHẠM LAN ANH, PhD

Hanoi

June 2018
 TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................................. i

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... iii

LIST OF FIGUES AND TABLES .............................................................................................. iv

CHAPTER I .................................................................................................................................. 1

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1

1.1 RATIONALE ..................................................................................................................... 1

1.2. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................. 3
1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ................................................................. 3
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTION ................................................................................................. 4
1.5. SIGNIFICANCES OF THE STUDY ................................................................................ 4
1.6. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ....................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 6

2.1. THE NATURE OF SPEAKING ........................................................................................ 6

2.2. TEACHING SPEAKING................................................................................................... 6

2.2.1 The Nature of Teaching Speaking ................................................................................... 6

2.2.2 Principles for Teaching Speaking ................................................................................... 7
2.2.3 Difficulties in Teaching Speaking ................................................................................... 8
2.2.4 Teaching Speaking for Tertiary Schools ......................................................................... 8
2.2.5 The Roles of Teacher in Teaching Speaking................................................................... 9
2.2.6 Assessing Speaking ......................................................................................................... 9
2.3 PARTICIPATION ............................................................................................................ 10

2.3.1 Definition ...................................................................................................................... 10

2.3.2 Benefits of students’ participation in language learning ............................................... 12
2.3.3. Factors affecting students’ participation ...................................................................... 13
2.3.4 Previous studies on students’ participation in English learning in mixed ability classes14

2.4. SPEAKING PERFORMANCE ....................................................................................... 15

2.4.1 Definition ...................................................................................................................... 15

2.4.2. Factors Affecting Speaking Performance .................................................................... 17
2.5. INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES .............................................................................. 19

2.5.1. The Definition of Information Gap Activities.............................................................. 19

 2.5.2 The Characteristics of Information Gap Activities ....................................................... 20
2.5.3. The Teachers’ Roles in the Information Gap Activities............................................... 22
2.5.4. The Advantages of Using Information Gap Activities ................................................. 23
2.5.5. Previous studies on application of information gap activities in teaching English
speaking for EFL students in Vietnam ................................................................................... 23
2.6. SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 24

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODS ................................................................................... 25

3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN ..................................................................................................... 25

3.2. SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH .................................................................................. 26

3.3. RESEARCH SETTING ................................................................................................... 26

3.4. PROCEDURES OF THE RESEARCH ........................................................................... 26

3.4.1. Planning........................................................................................................................ 26
3.4.1.1 Identification of Problems .......................................................................................... 27
3.4.1.2 Determining the Research Problems .......................................................................... 28
3.4.2. Actions ......................................................................................................................... 28
3.4.3. Observation .................................................................................................................. 30
3.4.4. Reflection ..................................................................................................................... 30
3.5. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS........................................................................ 31

3.5.1. Observation .................................................................................................................. 31

3.5.2. Interviews ..................................................................................................................... 32
3.5.3. Tests ............................................................................................................................. 33
3.6. INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES .............................................................................. 35

3.6.1. Using classroom English during the teaching learning process ................................... 35
3.6.2. Applying information gap activities ........................................................................... 35
3.6.3. Retelling a story in front of the class............................................................................ 35
3.6.4. Improving students’ vocabulary ................................................................................... 36
3.6.5. Giving rewards to the best performance....................................................................... 36
3.7. TECHNIQUES OF THE DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................. 36

3.8. SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 37

CHAPTER IV – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION..................................................................... 38

4.1. FINDINGS FROM OBSERVATIONS AND INTERVIEWS ....................................... 38

4.2. FINDINGS FROM TESTS ............................................................................................. 49
4.3. SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... 52
CHAPTER V - SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS .... 53

5.1. RECAPITULATION ....................................................................................................... 53

5.2. SUGGESION ON HOW IGA SHOULD BE USED IN SPEAKING ............................. 53

5.4. IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................. 55

5.5. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES ................................................................. 55

REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 56

APPENDIX A Interview Guidelines .......................................................................................... 61

APPENDIX B Interview Transcripts .......................................................................................... 63

APPENDIX C Observation Checklists ....................................................................................... 79

APPENDIX D Field Notes ......................................................................................................... 85

APPENDIX E The Speaking Rubric........................................................................................... 98

APPENDIX F Course Grids ..................................................................................................... 102

APPENDIX G Lesson Plans ..................................................................................................... 104

APPENDIX H Learning Materials............................................................................................ 118

APPENDIX I Students’ Speaking Scores ................................................................................. 132

APPENDIX J The Attendance List ........................................................................................... 135

APPENDIX K Tests.................................................................................................................. 137

 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor,
Dr. Phạm Lan Anh for her detailed guidance, explicit instruction and great
encouragement in the process of writing this thesis, without which my thesis would
never have been completed. I would also like to express my appreciation to all lecturers
at English Education Department during my M.A course.

I also address my gratitude to the Director of Hai Phong University, the Dean of
Foreign Language Department and Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Lệ Hằng for giving me permission
to conduct the research in Class English Major 5 K17 and valuable help and
cooperation. Many thanks would also be given to the students of class English Major 5 -
K17 for being cooperative during the research.

My grateful thanks would go to my collaborator, Mrs. Đỗ Thị Kiểm, for her help
and cooperation, without which I could never have finished my thesis.

Last but not least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my beloved
family members, whose support and love gave me great motivation in life and lead me
to achieving my success.

Hải Phòng, June 2018

Phan Thành Nam

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 ABSTRACT

The objective of this research was to improve the speaking participation and
performance of the students in class English Major 5 – K17 (EM 5 – K17) - Foreign
Language Department (FLD) - Hai Phong University (HPU) by using information gap
activities.

The research was divided into two cycles: Cycle 1 included four meetings and Cycle 2
included two meetings. The data were quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative data
were obtained through classroom observations and interviews with the teachers and the
students. The quantitative data were obtained from and observation checklists and tests
(the pre-test, the progress test, and the post-test). The actions implemented in this
research were described as information gap activities which included implementing
classroom English in the teaching learning process, improving students’ vocabulary,
retelling a story in front of the class, and rewarding students or groups who gave the
best performance.

The result of the research showed that the implementation of information gap activities
could improve the students’ speaking participation and performance. First, the students
actively participated in the teaching - learning process because they were less shy and
nervous and they were more confident and relaxed when speaking English. Moreover,
they became more enthusiastic and motivated while doing the activities. Second, their
speaking performance also improved thanks to the implementation of information gap
activities. After the IGA were applied in the lessons in Cycle 1 and 2, the students were
able to ask and questions about the stories, reproduce certain parts of the stories and
retell the whole stories in their own words fluently. Their progress in speaking
performance was once more confirmed by the results from the tests which showed that
their mean score for the speaking skills improved from 1.33 in the pre-test to 3.07 in the
post- test.

ii
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FLD – Foreign Language Department

HPU – Hải Phòng University

EM 5 – K17 – English Major 5 – K17

IGA - Information Gap Activities

iii
 LIST OF FIGUES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Action Research Cycles by Kemmis and McTaggart ………………..p25

Table 1: The Schedule for Cycle 1 …………………………………………….p29

Table 2: The Schedule for Cycle 2 …………………………………………….p30

Table 3: The students’ self - evaluation of their problems in English speaking

lessons and on the way the teaching activities were carried out in their
class …………………………………………………………………..p39

Table 4: The students’ self - evaluation on the way the teaching activities were
carried out in their class
………………………………………………………………………..p39
Table 5: The students’ level of participation in speaking class before the
application of IGA
………………………………………………………………………..p40

Table 6: The improvement on the students’ oral participation during the six
meetings using IGA
………………………………………………………………………...p42

Table 7: Students’ self – evaluation on the their problems after Cycle 1 and 2 .p43

Table 8: Students’ self – evaluation on the way the teaching activities were
carried out in their class after Cycle 1 and 2
………………………………………………………………………...p43

Table 9: The observers’ opinions about the students’ improvement on their

participation and language performance
………………………………………………………………………...p44

Table 10: The result of the Pre-test in each aspect ……………………………...p49

Table 11: The result of the Progress test in each aspect ………………………...p49

Table 12: The result of the Post-test in each aspect……………………………...p50

Table 13: The Comparison of the Students’ Mean Scores in the Tests………….p51

Table 14: The general findings of the students’ mean scores in the tests………..p51

iv
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE
English is becoming more and more essential in many fields such as business, education,
politic, and social communication. As a result, more and more non-native English speakers,
including Vietnamese people, are trying to master this language in order to meet the demand at
work and in everyday life. The emphasis on learning English can be seen from the education
curriculums of both general and tertiary education where English is a core subject and is given
considerable time and efforts.

According to Nguyen (2013), it is expected that Project 2020 (administered by MOET -

the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam) will anable most Vietnamese students
graduating from secondary and vocational schools, colleges, and universities to use a foreign
language in their daily communication. It means that being able to speak English fluently with
English users (foreigners and native speakers) around the world is one of the most important
missions in teaching English in both general and tertiary schools.

Furthermore, the mastery of speaking is the first concern for most of foreign language
students. Consequently, the success of foreign language learners sometimes bases on their
improvement in speaking (Richards, 2008).

However, the importance of speaking is not generally backed up by the speaking

participation of students in reality. This condition also occurs in Foreign Language Department
(FLD) at Haiphong University (HPU). By observing and interviewing the English teachers and
some students that the researcher had worked with, he discovered many problems related to
students’ psychological factors, the English teachers’ teaching techniques and the
teaching/learning media. Many students are unable to express their ideas and opinions in
English. They usually find help from notes, memorize the texts or read them in front of the class.
They are hesitant, worried, nervous and anxious when they have to present in English with
teacher or in front of the class. Because of insufficient vocabulary and lack of practice in
pronunciation, they can not express what they want to say in English or even pronounce words

1
correctly. As a result, they were lack of confident to speak English, especially in front of the
class and get stuck with the low speaking performance.

Moreover, during the observation in class English Major 5 – K17, the researcher saw that
many students did not seem attentive to and enthusiastic enough with the teacher’s instructions in
the class. Many students were caught chatting with their classmates or doing personal business
instead of paying attention to their lessons. In other words, these students showed their physical
participation but not their oral and mental involvement in their lessons.

In addition, sometimes communicative situations were not created by the teacher in the
class. In spite of the fact that the teacher could convey the materials well, she did not give
enough chances for students to practice their speaking. Most of the time, the exercises were
teacher-centered in the sense that the teacher spoke and gave instructions to the students.
Moreover, modern learning media and equipment were not used in the lessons to support the
teaching process and to make the lessons more attractive. Consequently, the students felt bored
and tired of repeating the same learning activities and they passively took part in the speaking
activities in speaking classes.

From the observation above, the researcher attempted to find an effective approach to
enhancing the speaking participation of students. Speaking activities should create enough time
for students to practice the target language. The activities need to motivate students in order to
boost their enthusiasm by engaging them in the learning process. It is the duty of the teacher to
provide the appropriate feedback that helps students while doing the activity (Harmer, 1998).

An information gap is a situation in which there is a communication between two or more

people and where information is known only to some of the people present (Li, 2005). More
specifically, people normally communicate with each other to get information which the other
person does not know but they need it. An information gap activity is a type of gap activities that
forces the participants to think. It is an activity that requires the learners to share or exchange
information or opinions in order to complete a task.

In addition, the researcher decided to choose information gap activities namely telling
and retelling folktales beautifully illustrated with video clips in English to enhance the students’
speaking participation because they were familiar to the students in their mother tongue. This

2
made it easier for the students to practice their speaking when they complete their speaking tasks.
Information gap activities in such a form also can help the learning and teaching situation more
entertaining. The students are not just listening to the teacher’s instructions, but they can also
interact with their classmates and practice speaking English. Finally, information gap activities
may improve students’ confidence and help them to gain better motivation in speaking. As far as
the problems the students have in speaking and the advantages of using information gap
activities in boosting students’ speaking participation are concerned, it is crucial to conduct an
action research in class EM 5 – K17.

1.2. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Due to limited time and knowledge, the study mainly focused on measuring the
effectiveness of applying information exchange activities in increasing the students’ oral
participation. This was shown by the data collected from observation, interview and tests: the
increase in the number of the participating students in the speaking activities in class, the
decrease in the number of the students with negative psychological problems in speaking classes
and the improvement in the students’ speaking performance. The study was carried out in class
EM 5 – K17, who shared the same curriculum with the other six classes and who was also the
class the researcher used to teach Speaking 1 and witnessed their learning problems before he
started the MA course. In order to gather information for the study, observation, interviews and
tests were implemented and the study lasted nearly a school year.
1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of the study is to improve the speaking participation and performance of EM 5 –
K17 students at Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong University by using information
gap activities.
In reference to the background of study and identification of the problems, the researcher
focused on how much the students’ speaking participation and their speaking performance can be
improved by using information gap activities. In order to address the problems, the researcher
found help from a collaborator to help the researcher during the research. Moreover, the English
teacher of class EM5 – K17 and three other teachers from the Division were invited to be
observers in the learning and teaching process.

Therefore, the objectives of the study are to identify the problems that hinder EM 5 –

3
K17 students’ participation in speaking activities and to examine the effects of information gap
activities on students’ participation and their performance in speaking.
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTION
The research aimed to answer the following questions:

RQ 1: To what extent do information gap activities in speaking lessons improve the

speaking participation of EM 5 – K17 majors at HPU?
RQ 2: To what extent do information gap activities help improve the students speaking
performance?
1.5. SIGNIFICANCES OF THE STUDY
The study has some benefits that can be defined as follows:

For the English teachers at FLD - HPU, this study can enrich their techniques in
teaching speaking skills in general, in getting the students more involved in speaking lessons in
particular.

For the students at FLD - HPU, through this study, they can improve their motivation,
confidence and enthusiasm to take part in learning activities in speaking classes, in other words
they can improve their oral and mental participation in class.

For other researchers, this study may arouse their interest for a further study on the topic
and at the same time can enrich their references if they want to conduct a research for the same
or related topic.

Theoretically, this study makes contribution to enriching knowledge of the ways to

improve speaking participation by using information gap activities.

1.6. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS

This thesis report consists of five chapters as follows.

Chapter 1 discusses the background of the study, the research questions and the scope of
the study.

Chapter 2 revises all the theoretical issues related to the topic of the research, aiming to
back up the study. Many previous studies on the same topic are also mentioned and discussed.

4
 Chapter 3 gives a detailed description of the research subjects, research setting, the data
collection instruments, the procedure of the research and especially the information gap
activities.

Chapter 4 provides the detailed presentation of the process of the application of IGA in
the two cycles, the findings of the research and the discussions on the results and the
implications of the findings.

The final chapter summarizes the main issues discussed in the study, evaluates the
strengths and the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further studies.

5
 CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses essential theoretical issues on speaking, oral participation and
information gap activities that support the study. This chapter also reviews on the previous
studies on the same topic.

2.1. THE NATURE OF SPEAKING

Many definitions related to speaking are mentioned by experts in the field of language
learning. According to Richards (2008), speaking involves the situations where the point is on
what is said or done. The message is the central focus along the side of how they interact socially
with each other. Then, another definition said that speaking involves using speech to express
meanings to other people (Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams, 2005).

Thornbury (2005) gave another definition which states that speaking requires the ability
to cooperate in organizing the speaking turn. It also normally happens in real-time. Thus, he also
claims that speaking consists of three stages: conceptualization, formulation, articulation and
also self-monitoring.

From those definitions above, it can be said that speaking is the productive skill that
needs participants to actively participate in speaking so that they can interact and express their
intention with others. The speaker needs to have confidence and also competence in order to
make a good conversation with others.

2.2. TEACHING SPEAKING

2.2.1 The Nature of Teaching Speaking
Speaking is the English skill that students should master in the language learning process
which makes it the skill most needed to be mastered (Nation & Newton, 2009). Richards (2008)
also states that the mastery of speaking skills in English is the first concern for many ESL or EFL
students.

6
 Teaching speaking needs to involve the participation of learners. The students’
involvement can be created by many speaking activities. Harmer (1998) states that it needs to
have a task requiring the students’ use of language to complete and perform the task.

According to Richards (2008), there are three core issues need in planning English
speaking activities. The first thing to do is finding out the focus of the speaking skills. The
second issue is identifying the teaching approaches. Lastly, the teacher needs to determine the
expected level of the speaking task and the criteria that will be used to test students’
performance.

2.2.2 Principles for Teaching Speaking

In teaching speaking, the teacher needs to consider many principles so that they make the
tasks fit to the students’ needs. Bailey (as cited in Nunan, 2003) mentions five principles for
teaching speaking as below.

Firstly, the teacher should be aware of the differences between second language and
foreign language learning contexts and determine the position of English in their own teaching
situation whether it is teaching English as a second language or teaching English as a foreign
language. For example, at HPU, English is taught as a foreign language

Secondly, students should be given enough opportunities to practice with both fluency
and accuracy. The teacher is expected to provide students with many fluency-building practices
in which making mistakes and learning from them are parts of their learning experience so that
they can develop their fluency and accuracy.

Besides, students should be provided with opportunities to take part in such learning
activities as group work or pair work because these offer opportunities for students to negotiate
the meaning of what their partners say, ask for and give clarification, give them more time to
practice their speaking. At the same time, by using these activities, the teacher can wisely limit
the speaking time and give more time for students to speak in the target language during the
learning process.

7
 Finally, the teacher is expected to design classroom activities that involve guidance and
practice in both transactional and interactional speaking so that students will have to speak the
target language in both transactional and interactional settings.

2.2.3 Difficulties in Teaching Speaking

Involving the process of learning and teaching activity, there are many challenges for the
teacher. As mentioned before, there are some factors that affect students’ low speaking
competence. According to Thornbury (2005), the difficulties that the learner-speaker faces split
into two main areas:

1) Knowledge factors: the learner does not yet know aspects of the language that enable production.

2) Skills factors: the learner’s knowledge is not sufficiently automated to ensure fluency.

As a result, there may also be:

3) Affective factors, such as lack of confidence or self-consciousness, which might inhibit fluency. (p.39)

There are some other reasons that prevent students from performing a well-done speaking
in English. Harmer (2007) states that the class of mixed level, the topic, the organization of the
activities, and also the hesitant students may become problems in teaching speaking.

Besides, according to Brown (2001) one of the major barriers students have to overcome
in learning to speak is the nervousness created over the risks of sudden things out that are
incorrect, odd, or incomprehensible. Moreover, unlike writing or reading, speaking occurs in real
time when the person you are talking to is waiting for your speaking right then. You also cannot
revise what you wish to say, as you can if you are writing (Bailey as cited in Nunan. 2003).

Speaking is one of the English skills that has its own characteristics and difficulties to be
learnt. As mentioned earlier, speaking skill may be noticed first by people who decide whether
you are good at certain language or not. Therefore, helping students to have good speaking
competence is a big challenge of teacher in performing a good teaching process.

2.2.4 Teaching Speaking for Tertiary Schools

According to the content standard of the project entitled “Learning and teaching Foreign
Language in national education system, period 2008-2020” or “Project 2020” the goal of
teaching foreign language in general and English in specific in tertiary schools: "most
Vietnamese youth whoever graduate ... colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a
8
foreign language independently. This will enable them to be more confident in communication".
From this goal mentioned, the oral communication is one of the aspects that need to be achieved
by the students.

It can be concluded that students at tertiary level must be able to express orally the
meaning of certain texts like recount and narrative to interact with their surrounding environment
appropriately. Thus, the students are required to have good speaking skills in order to be able to
achieve the competencies.

2.2.5 The Roles of Teacher in Teaching Speaking

According to Brown (2001), the teacher has some different roles during the speaking
activities.

He stated that the first role of teacher is as prompter. The students sometimes cannot
think of what to say next or in some way lose the fluency. The teacher can help them by giving
suggestions. If it can be done supportively, it will stop the frustration that some students feel
when they come to a dead end of language or ideas.

The second role of teacher is participant. The teacher should be a good animator when
asking students to produce a language. At other times, however, the teacher should take part in
the discussion or the role-play themselves. Thus, the teacher can elicit covertly, introduce new
information to keep the activity forward, guarantee continuing student engagement and generally
maintain a creative learning environment. However, the teacher needs to understand the limit
which they should not participate too much.

The final role he mentioned is feedback provider. When students have finished an
activity, it is important that the teacher allows them to assess what they have done and that the
teacher gives the feedback on what the students have done well and what they have not
completed.

2.2.6 Assessing Speaking

The assessing activity is always done to understand the students’ progression in the
certain lesson. The process can be conducted at the start and at the end of the lesson. As stated by
Thornbury (2005), there are two ways in giving speaking mark. The first assessing is called

9
holistic scoring where it gives a single score on the basis of an overall impression. It can save
time and it is probably appropriate for informal testing of progress. Next, the other way is named
analytic scoring. It provides a separate score for different aspects of the task. Although analytic
scoring requires more time, it allows testers to consider a variety of criteria, and if the criteria are
well-chosen, is probably fairer and more trustworthy.

According to Thornbury (2005), a speaking test is often time-taking and fairly

demanding. The teacher needs lots of time to examine every student’s performance and
sometimes every examiner have to find right criteria to be used. Therefore, he also provides an
example of criteria used in CELS test. There are four categories: grammar and vocabulary,
discourse management, pronunciation, and interactive communication.

In grammar and vocabulary, the features to be considered are the accuracy and
appropriateness of syntactic form and vocabulary. In discourse management, the ability to
express ideas and opinions in the coherent and connected speech is considered. Then, the
comprehensible utterances such as sounds production and appropriate linking words are the
focus of pronunciation. Lastly, interactive communication means the ability to interact and to
respond appropriately and at the required speed and rhythm. Brown (2004) also proposed
different criteria while he provides six oral proficiency scoring categories: grammar, vocabulary,
comprehension, fluency, pronunciation, and task.

2.3 PARTICIPATION
2.3.1 Definition
Students’ participation is an important aspect of classroom interaction and has various
definitions. As defined in Collins English Dictionary, student participation is “the extent to
which students participate or involve themselves in a class, course, etc.” It can also be defined in
terms of three kinds of interaction, namely students to their teacher, students to students, and
students to materials.

Students who are considered to maintain a good interaction with their teacher always take
part in the classroom activities as well as contact the teacher by listening to what he/she says,
responding to his/her questions or even making questions to ask him/her whenever they do not
understand anything in the lessons. They become involved in what is happening in the classroom

10
by asking for information or explanation, sharing personal experience in relation to the topics, or
volunteering to perform an activity.

Unlike the student–teacher interaction, the interaction between students themselves is

established by their group discussion or other group activities. The kind of interaction between
students and materials can be understood as students’ success in completing assigned activities.

In addition, classroom participation can be classified into two types: verbal participation
and non-verbal participation.

Verbal participation means students speaking in class, answering and asking questions,
making comments, and taking part in discussion (Lee, 2005). Thus, it can be realized and
recorded easily during the lesson. It means that students who do not participate in the above-
mentioned ways are often considered to be passive in the classroom activities. However, it is said
that Asian students are rarely ready to reveal their thoughts or feeling in the crowd (Remedies,
Clarke, & Hawthorne, (n.d)). They usually demonstrate their lack of interest in participating in
discussion. As a result, lack of verbal interaction in Asian classrooms was perceived as an
obstacle to the maximization of their learning potential.

Non-verbal participation, on the other hand, is related to behavioural responses while in

class. It is defined by Eryilmaz & Dam (2005, p. 1) as a system of a range of features often used
together to aid expression. According to this system, the main components are Kinestics (body
language), Oculesics (eye contact), Chronemics (uses of time, waiting, pausing), etc.

Moreover, Peacock (1997) defined student’s participation in classroom activities in terms

of on task or off-task behaviours. This means that students are on-task when they are “engaged in
the pedagogic work of the day” and students are off-task when they have “a complete lack of
attention to the task” (p. 155).

Off-task behaviour is used to describe the occasions when the learner is engaged in a
behaviour that is not related to the activity set by the teacher. This term typically refers to
relatively low forms of behaviours like day-dreaming, looking around the room, playing with
materials or equipment, gossiping with neighbours, passing notes, dozing and so on.

11
 The opposite of off-task behaviour is, predictably, on-task behaviour. It is proposed that
learners who spend more time actively engaged in studying are persisting with the set task
(Peacock, 1998). Peacock also showed the way to measure students’ participation by scanning
the number of students’ times to be on task.

The on-task/ off-task concepts have been employed in many research projects both
overseas (e.g., Hopskin, 1985) and in Vietnam (e.g., Nguyen Thi Thanh Hong, 2007; Doan Thi
Le Nhung, 2008) as it assists the researchers in quantifying a seemingly abstract variable. In this
thesis, students’ participation is specified as students’ on-task behaviours, which means actively
working within their assigned group. Actively working here consists of both verbal and non-
verbal participation.

The reason for the inclusion of non-verbal participation here is that there are some
“underlying factors governing learners’ participation” (Tsui, 1998), two of which are students’
learning styles and their cultural background. Some learners prefer listening and internalizing to
verbalizing. If the teacher tries to force them to participate verbally, their learning process would
be adversely affected. Besides, it is widely believed that Asian students are usually “modest” and
do not volunteer to answer questions until they are called on by the teacher; otherwise they
would be accused of showing off (Tsui, 1998).

Students’ participation may also be seen as both physical and mental involvement.
Physical participation means that students may have full attendance in class but their mental
participation is very poor, they make little or no contribution to the learning activities in class.
On the other hand, mental participation means that the students show both their physical
presence and mental involvement in the learning activities. This leads the teachers to consider
the ways to promote the students’ mental participation and grade it effectively.

2.3.2 Benefits of students’ participation in language learning

From the definitions of students’ participation mentioned in the previous section, it can
be concluded that participation or involvement is of crucial importance to student language
acquisition. The learning process may occur inside and/or outside the classroom, however within
the classroom, the more students interact with the teacher, other students, and materials, the more
they learn, i.e., academic achievement increases (Blatchford et al., 2006). In other words,

12
students’ participation plays a major role in language learning in the classroom because most of
the level of performance achieved by different students is determined by participation (Wangsa,
2004). According to him, the most successful students are those who have both talent and high
level of participation in classroom. In addition, teachers cannot teach effectively without
students’ participation because the goal of teaching is to send out information and transform
students from inactive recipients of other people’s knowledge into active ones (Barry & King,
1993).
Moreover, the authentic learning environment is big classes of students of mixed ability
and background, therefore, it requires the teacher not only good knowledge of subject matter but
also a combination of other skill such as managing the classroom, encouraging class participation
and students interaction, assessing, motivating students, etc. According to Davies and Pearse
(2000), there are many material conditions that can help improve teaching quality, such as
adequate space, not too big class size, and good lighting, etc., but what ensure successful
teaching and learning are less tangible conditions such as “plenty of opportunities for learners to
participate in class and an atmosphere in which they feel motivated to learn” (p.12). Therefore, it
is worth investigating ways to enhance student participation.
2.3.3. Factors affecting students’ participation
According to Peacock (1998), there are many factors affecting the level of on-task
behaviour, either individually or in combination. She lists out five dominant factors, namely the
topic of materials, the type of activity undertaken by learners, the teaching approach adopted by
the teacher, the motivation that brings learners to class, and the cultural factors.
Xu (2006) mentions ten factors including working experience, previous learning,
perceived competence, desire to communicate, attitude to teaching, attitude to activities, course
book, input, topic and class atmosphere.
Additionally, it is claimed that students tend to keep quiet due to several reasons. One of
the main reasons is students’ lack of language skills as well as inadequate content knowledge
(Tatar, 2005). Similarly, Han (2007) reveals that Asian students face some difficulties in
participating in the discussion because they do not have enough understanding of content
materials.
Moreover, learners’ on-task/off-task level is affected by the tasks themselves. Powell, Mc
Ityre & Rightmyer (2006) state that if the lessons include prescribed activities and closed tasks, a

13
large proportion (82%) of the off-task behaviours took place. According to them, closed tasks are
defined as “those that involve correct responses or require single, narrow strategies for success”
(p. 5). On the other hand, these researchers appreciate open tasks, which provide learners with
more freedom and a sense of ownership over learning, and therefore foster learners’ engagement
with learning. It is further recommended that teachers should give learners chances to select the
tasks which they find interesting and personally relevant.
Since learners’ participation is affected by many factors, it is advisable that the teacher in
each class should define the main one(s) in his/her own setting. The choice of method used to
increase students’ level of on-task behaviours, as a result, varies considerably, depending on each
classroom setting.

In the researcher’s teaching context, the main factors that negatively affect learners’
participation can be divided into objective and the subjective ones with the former including the
uninteresting learning tasks and the latter referring to teachers’ teaching methods, learners’ poor
vocabulary, limited language ability, learning styles, and learners’ motivation.

2.3.4 Previous studies on students’ participation in English learning in mixed ability classes
In recent years, there have been several studies done by both foreign and Vietnamese
researchers, focusing on mixed ability classes and students’ participation. For instance, Gorska
(1995) and Copur (2005) investigated problems of English teaching in mixed ability classes and
suggested some techniques to help teachers involve students in classroom activities, including
the teacher’s appeal to all senses, all learning styles, contingency plans, entire in-class activities,
open-ended tasks, personalized tasks, group work activities, extra homework, portfolios, and
self-assess centres. As a result, those techniques were effective for all students because they were
all successful at the end as they finished their work.

In Vietnam, there have been similar research studies on students’ participation in English
classes. In 2004, Vu Hoai Thu carried out an investigation of the participation of the first year
English major students in speaking lessons at Hai Duong Teacher Training College. The
outcome of this investigation suggested that it was true that students at Hai Duong Teacher
Training College were passive and lacked confidence in speaking lessons because of teaching
methods and the students’ psychology factors.

14
 Nguyen Thi Thanh Hong (2007) carried out an action research on students’ participation
in English classroom activities in mixed ability classes at Dai Tu High School. The study
identified the main causes of low participation of students in English classroom activities, which
originated from the learning activities and teaching methods. The study also showed that by
using grading tasks, pair and group work, and dealing with different learning speeds, students
participate more in English classroom activities. However, the information would have been
more reliable if the data generated from observation had been backed up by videotaping.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hanh (2017) made a recent research titled An investigation into non-
English major students’ participation in group work in EFL classes at Hanoi University of
Industry. The author attempted to investigate the level of students’ participation in group work
activities in EFL classes at Hanoi University of Industry and get a better understanding of the
factors affecting students’ participation in group work activities in EFL classes at Hanoi
University of Industry. At the same time she provided some implications to overcome the
obstacles for students’ participation in group work activities.
All these mentioned research have given the author many useful ideas and experience in
the process of his research at FLD, HPU.

2.4. SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

2.4.1 Definition
2.4.1.1. Accuracy
According to Nunan (2015), accuracy refers to the extent to which the learners’ speech is
grammatically acceptable, with clear, intelligible pronunciation and appropriate choice of
vocabulary.
2.4.1.2. Fluency
Fluency is the extent to which the learner can speak at an acceptable speed with few false
starts and hesitations (Nunan, 2015). Lade (1961) points out that speaking capacity is depicted as
the capacity to report acts or circumstance, in exact words, or the capacity to speak or to express
a succession of thoughts easily. Research into listener’s perception suggests that pausing is one
of the factors of fluency (Thornbury, 2005). Furthermore, Thornbury (2005) states that people
can be said as fluent speakers if they fulfill the following features:
a) Pauses may be long but not frequent
b) Pauses are usually filled

15
 c) Pauses occur at meaningful transition points
d) There are long runs of syllables and words between pauses
Foster and Skehan in Nunan (2004, p. 87) propose a model in assessing speaking in
which fluency is measured by considering the total number of seconds of silence and time spent
saying ‘um’ and ‘ah’ by subjects as they complete a task.
2.4.1.3. Pronunciation
According to Thornbury (2005, p. 128-129), pronunciation refers to the student’s ability
to produce comprehensible utterances to fulfill the task requirements. Harmer (2001, p. 28-33)
provides more issues related to pronunciation. He suggests pitch, intonation, individual sounds,
sounds and spelling, and stress. Pronunciation becomes important because it gives meaning to
what is being said. Wrong pronunciation may cause misunderstanding or people involved in a
conversation are offended.
2.4.1.4. Grammar
According to Brown (2001, p. 62) “Grammar is the system of rules governing the
conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence”.
2.4.1.5. Vocabulary
Thornbury (2005, p. 22) suggests three usual things used by speakers in what they are
being said:
a) When people speaking, they are involving high proportion of words and expressions
that express their attitude (stance) to what is being said.
b) Speakers ordinarily utilize words and articulations that express constructive and
contrary evaluation in light of the fact that a considerable measure of discourse has a
relational capacity, and by distinguishing what individuals like and abhorrence, they can
express solidarity.
c) A speech also usually employs deictic language, i.e. words and expressions that point
to the place, time, and participants in the intermediate or a more distant context.
2.4.1.6. Interactive Communication
According to Thornbury (2005, p. 129), “Interactive communication refers to the ability
of a candidate to interact with the interlocutor and the other candidates by initiating and
responding appropriately and at the required speed and rhythm to fulfill the task requirements”.
Brown (2001, p. 269) also states that the most difficulties faced by students in speaking are the

16
interactive nature of communication. In speaking, especially when the students are having
conversation, they are participating in a process of negotiation of meaning. Then, learners
usually have problems in how to say things, when to speak, and other discourse constants.
Although they have difficulties in this aspect, assessing students through the way they interact is
good to train them to have natural speaking.
2.4.1.7. Appropriateness
According to Harmer (2001, p. 24), the term of appropriateness is related to some
variables. When people are communicating they have to see what effects to achieve the
communicative purpose.
2.4.1.8. Complexity
According to Halliday (1985, p. 87) it is wrong that written language is highly organized,
structured, and complex while spoken is disorganized, fragmentary, and simple. Brown,
Anderson, Shilock, and Yule as cited in Nunan (2004, p. 86) declared that what made speaking
difficult was related to the type of information that had to be conveyed and was concerned with
the scale of the task and interrelationships among the different elements involved. The spoken
language is complex in a different way.
The complexity of written language is static and dense, while spoken is dynamic and intricate.
2.4.2. Factors Affecting Speaking Performance
There are many factors which have impact on language learning. These factors are
divided into subjective and objective factors.
2.4.2.1. Subjective Factors
Subjective factors refer to factor that come from learner self. It’s including physiological
aspects and learners’ language competence (ability).
a. Psychology
Burns and Joyce as cited in Nunan (1999); Schwartz (2005); and Thornbury (2005) argue
that psychological factors such as anxiety or shyness, lack of confidence, lack of motivation, and
fear of mistakes are the factors commonly that hinder students from speaking. Furthermore,
Brown claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be carried out without some
degree of self- esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself, and belief in your own
capabilities for that activity (Brown, 2002). Self-esteem represents the degree of one’s
confidence and belief in himself or herself. From the observation of classroom learning, we can

17
find that learners with high self-esteem manifest more confidence and give more positive
evaluations on themselves which will promote their language learning. Some students fail in oral
English learning or feel less willing and confident in speaking English in class because they have
a low self-esteem.
A study conducted by Koichi Sato (2003 in Minghe & Yuan, 2013) finds that students of
English are not highly competent in speaking because of their fear of making mistakes. The same
finding is also shared by another research conducted by Ballard (1996, in Yan, 2007) who finds
that students fail to join in the English discussion because of their vocabulary problems and fear
of making mistakes resulting in their inability to speak English well. In addition, she says that
students find speaking English a stressful activity especially if they have to perform something
using English.
Moreover, motivation is also an important factor in language learning success. Brown
(1980, p.112) defines motivation as an inner drive, impulse, emotion or desire that moves one to
a particular action. It’s known to all that proper motivation will draw learners’ attentions and
arouse their interests to learn, thus they are more likely to succeed in language learning.
b. Language Competence
According to Chomsky (1965), competence is the ideal language system that enables
speakers to produce and understand an infinite number” of sentences in their language, and to
distinguish grammatical sentences and ungrammatical ones.
According to Wikipedia, the term linguistic performance was used by Chomsky in 1960
to describe the “actual use of language in concrete situation”. It is used to describe both the
production as well as comprehension of the language.
In this study, language factor in speaking performance refer to ability of speaker to master the
aspects of language while communicating. These aspects included: fluency, intonation,
vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar,
c. Topical Knowledge
Topical information is characterized as learning structures in long term memory
(Bachman and Palmer, 1996). As it were, topical learning is the speakers' learning of important
topical information. The information that topical information furnishes empowers students to
utilize dialect with reference to the world in which they live. Bachman and Palmer (1996)
express certain test assignments might be less demanding for the individuals who have the

18
important topical information and more troublesome for 22 the individuals who don't. They trust
that topical learning has impacts on talking execution. Huang (2015) led an exploration to
investigate the connections among topical information, uneasiness, and incorporated talking test
execution. One of his finding demonstrated that topical learning firmly impacted incorporated
talking execution however in a contrary way.
2.4.2.2. Objective Factors
a. Performance Condition
According to Nation & Newton, students perform a speaking task under a variety of
conditions, and they believe that performance conditions can affect speaking performance. They
suggest four types of performance conditions include time pressure; planning, the standard of
performance, and the amount of support (Nation & Newton, 2009).
b. Learning environment
In their research, Minghe & Yuan (2013) stated that “another eternal factor that affects
students’ oral English learning is the lacking of good language learning environment.” English is
a dialect utilized as a part of interchanges, so a decent dialect condition can viably advance
learning. Be that as it may, for a large portion of the Indonesian understudies, English is a remote
dialect they learn at school, and for the most part, understudies impart in their regular daily
existence in their local dialect and excessively sluggish, making it impossible to hone their
English outside the class or showing learning process.

2.5. INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES

2.5.1. The Definition of Information Gap Activities
An information gap is a situation in which the communication happens between two or
more people and the information is known only to some of the people present (Li, 2005). More
exactly, people normally exchange information with each other to get information which the
other one does not know but they have to acquire it. An information gap activity is a type of gap
activities that forces the participants to think. It is an activity that requires the learners to share or
exchange information or opinions in order to complete a task.

It involves a process of transferring the information from one person to another in which
each of the participants owns the information that is not shared by another. The problem can only
be solved if they exchange and place the information together.

19
 An information gap activity needs at least two different versions of materials. Learners
work in pairs or groups, then they get different information on their pages so that they have to
communicate with other students to complete the task of join the information together.

The information gap means in real life conversation, people usually communicate to get
information they do not have (Richards, 2006). As a result, the information needed to reach an
outcome is divided (evenly or unevenly) between the students. This divided information has
many effects (Li, 2005). First of all, it provides each student a reason to take part in. Secondly, it
makes each student need to understand the others’ talk. Thirdly, it gives a huge impression of
group cohesiveness, because the success of completing the task of each student depends on the
other one. Furthermore, the dividing of information is mostly effective for raising the amount of
negotiation of meaning in an activity (Long & Porter, 1985 in Li, 2005). The gap can also
generate the highly need to communicate as well as the need to cooperate (Lee and VanPatten,
2003).

2.5.2 The Characteristics of Information Gap Activities

There are several characteristics of information gap activities, many of which are related
to gaps, information exchanges, curiosity, and attractive activities.

2.5.2.1 Gap

A gap is an empty space between two things or something (Lee and VanPatten, 2003).
The appearance of a gap is necessary in the learning process. If anything is certain and known, it
is no need to think. Learning requires thinking and gaps create that demand (Hutchinson and
Waters, 1987). It means the necessary of thinking is provoked by the existence of gaps. At this
point, the gap is about information of anything between at least two persons that one person has
the information that the other does not. The gap generates the urgent need to communicate and
the need to cooperate.

2.5.2.2 Information exchange

An information exchange is the process of providing and receiving information, thoughts,

and ideas. The progress of information gap activities involves the exchange of information
between two or more people (Lee, 2003).

20
 The main purpose of the process is to give an understanding of the information which is
the subject of exchanges through conversations. In information gap activities, the exchange of
information starts with the formation of ideas or the selection of information. At this point, the
participants decide which meaningful message or information should be the target for
exchanging. The need for information exchanges in the information gap activities forces the
participants communicate to exchange their information.

2.5.2.3 Curiosity

A curiosity is a feeling related to the natural inquisitive behavior such as investigation,

exploration, and learning. In information gap activities, the factor of curiosity is existing.
Curiosity is about the information that the participants do not have or know (Thornburry, 2005).
It means that the existence of a gap makes the participants feel curious about it. Their curiosity
provokes them try to find out the missing information. To complete this task, the participants
need to ask the other one about the missing information actively. In the information gap activity,
the curious participants always want to ask the right questions and seek the right answers from
another.

2.5.2.4 Attractive activities

Attractive activities in a task that can awake someone’s interest and bring pleasure
(Thornburry, 2005). According to this, an information gap task could provide attractive activities
for the learners. The information gap activity is attractive because of its influence in learner’s
curiosity to find the information that they do not possess. If the participants’ attention is drawn to
the activities, they will attempt to fill the gap. In the learning and teaching process, that type of
activity can be in the form of games which lets the students enjoy the learning by playing. The
information gap activities boost the students’ motivation to engage in the games because they are
interesting.

Brown (2001) claimed that there are two main characteristics of an information gap
activity. First of all, the main attention is on the information itself and not on the language form.
Secondly, there is a need of communicative interaction to reach the goal. Beside Brown, Kayi
(2006) points out the important role of each student in the information gap activity because the

21
students are required to work in pairs in order to prevent them complete the task without
providing the information which the others need.

Richards (2006) appreciates the important of information gap a crucial aspect of

communication in Communicative Language Teaching because in real life conversation, people
usually communicate to get information they do not have. Furthermore, by applying the
information gap activity, a teacher will make use of the students’ ability to practice the
negotiation skill of meaning.

In conclusion, the information gap activity promotes students to communicate with each
other to transfer and receive information. This activity is a type of real-life communication.
Moreover, information gap activities can be given in the class through games such as jigsaw
tasks or role plays.

2.5.3. The Teachers’ Roles in the Information Gap Activities

In order to have an effective information gap task during the English learning and
teaching process, the teacher should understand his/her roles in the activity.

In information gap activities, there are three teacher’s roles (Son, 2009). The first role of
the teacher is as a facilitator. In this role, the teacher can perform as: 1) an activity initiator, 2) a
material provider, 3) an organizer of the classroom activities, 4) an error-corrector, 5) a standby
teacher, and 6) a consultant or adviser.

In the beginning of an information gap task, students could not begin the communicative
information gap activity themself and they still lack the knowledge in linguistic forms or skills
which create communicative competence. Therefore, the teacher should act as a material and
activity instructor. At the same time, being an organizer of the classroom activities, the teacher
should explicate the topic and the activity that students will learn. Furthermore, because
information gap is a group work, the teacher has to split the class into groups or pairs. As a
mistake corrector, a teacher should supervise and correct the linguistics errors in the pre-
speaking activity. However, at the group work or class work, the teacher may not correct the
errors because the errors do not restrict the conversation. Meanwhile, as a standby teacher,
he/she lets communication happens through separate activities. Last but not least, while being an

22
adviser or consultant, the teacher needs to walk around the classroom and give help to students if
needed.

The second main role of a teacher in the information gap activity is as a participator. In
this role, the teacher needs to participate as an equal member in the task. He/she may provide
information, stimulate and explicate new language at the same time. However, when involving in
such activity, the teacher have to act equally in position to the students. Then, when the teacher
acts as the role of an observer, he/she may consider the strong and the weak point of the students
while they are engaging with the independent activity. By understanding their weaknesses, the
teacher can create more balanced pre-speaking activities.

2.5.4. The Advantages of Using Information Gap Activities

The information gap activity brings many benefits to the English speaking learning and
teaching process. The first benefit of implementing the information gap activity is that there is
more communication to take place because these activities extend speaking practice. It means
students will concentrate on the communication for information, produce more speech, and help
each other in creating the communication. The second benefit is boosting students’ motivation
since in the activity the teacher provides them a reason to talk, keeps them thinking, represents
real communication and factual learning, and gives equal learning chances for mixed classes.
Besides, it can promote students’ confidence. This can be attained when the lesson is less
intimidating than presenting in front of the class, the atmosphere is more comfortable, casual,
and non-threatened, and the students feel free to interact with peers. Lastly, it can promote other
sub-skills, such as clarifying meaning, re-phrasing, negotiating of meaning, solving problems,
gathering information, and making decision (Son, 2009).

2.5.5. Previous studies on application of information gap activities in teaching English

speaking for EFL students in Vietnam
Vu (2013) showed her positive attitude toward the results of her survey in applying
information gap activities for the 1st year EFL students at ULIS - VNU: “While half of trainees
feel that these activities create motivation for them in their learning and 35% think this ability to
create motivation is reasonable, there is only 17% who are not satisfied with these” and “Up to
71.5% of trainees believe that the learning atmosphere when conducting information gap
activities is really stimulating”. She also pointed out that the key success element to a speaking

23
class implemented information gap activities is the teacher. She found out that what motivates
students is “teachers’ pre-teaching some vocabularies, the interesting topic, and teachers’ in-time
help”

Moreover, the majority of students and teachers participated in Vu’s study considered
information gap activities effective in speaking lessons because of these reasons. First,
information gap activities are suitable for their language performance, so they can use English to
communicate with their partner to accomplish the tasks given by teachers. Second, in terms of
trainees’ participation, they are motivated to participate actively when the teachers give them an
interesting topic or games. Third, information gap activities provide equal opportunities for
trainees. And finally, there is an increase in trainees’ talking time when they are required to work
in pairs. They have more opportunities to communicate with their partner rather than working in
groups of 4 or 5 students.

2.6. SUMMARY
Chapter 2 has discussed in detail the background knowledge that backs up the study with
various aspects of speaking skill and related information about information gap activities and
students’ participation in speaking classes. There is also a thorough review on the previous
studies both on students’ participation in speaking lessons and on application of information gap
activities in teaching English speaking for EFL students in general and on application of
information gap activities in teaching English speaking for EFL students in Vietnam in
particular. The next chapter will describe the full process of the study.

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 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter presents the methods that the researcher used in his research consisting of
the research design, the subjects of the research, the research setting, the procedures of the
research, the instruments of the research, the data collection techniques, intervention activities
and the technique of the data analysis. Each of these parts will be explained as follows.

3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN

Action research contains many stages that demonstrate the process of the actions. In this
research, the researcher formulated problems related to the students’ speaking participation and
then took the actions to solve the problems.

In order to improve the students’ speaking participation, the researcher used an action
research that comprises four steps as presented by Kemmis and McTaggart (in Burns, 2010: 7-8).

Figure 1: Action Research Cycles by Kemmis and McTaggart

According to the model above, the first step is planning. The researcher formulated some
problems found in the class and then began to solve the problems after planning the actions.
Along with taking actions, the researcher also observed the teaching learning process to identify
the effect of the actions. This is also the period when the researcher gathered as much
25
information related to the application of the actions as possible. The final step was reflection
when the researcher assessed and reflected on what he had done.

3.2. SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH

The subjects of the research were the first year EFL students of class English Major 5 –
K17 (EM 5 – K17) at Hai Phong University. There were 30 students including 7 male students
and 23 female counterparts, most of whom come from the northern rural areas and had not had
many opportunities to practice speaking skill at high school. They had spent the first two terms
of speaking practicing situational dialogues and therefore, they were able to take part in such
daily conversations as shopping at supermarkets, booking a ticket, ordering food at the restaurant
etc. The researcher chose class EM 5 – K17 as the subject because he used to teach speaking
skill to these students before enrolling this MA thesis course and he saw that they had many
difficulties in English speaking classes. Coming back as a researcher, he made a classroom
observation and interviewed the English teacher and the students of EM 5 – K17 to identify the
problems and saw that the students got low participations in speaking activities in speaking
lessons.

3.3. RESEARCH SETTING

The research was conducted in Foreign Language Department at Hai Phong University
located in Hai Phong, a city in the North of Vietnam. Being a multi-major school, HPU does not
create the especially favorable condition for the teaching and learning English. This is reflected
on the fact that the requirements for admission were very low, classes are big, the classrooms are
not noise proof and there are no language laboratories in the school, which contributes to the
difficulties for both teachers and students in teaching and learning.

3.4. PROCEDURES OF THE RESEARCH

Using the action research’s model of Kemmis and McTaggart, this study consists of four
steps in each cycle as follows.

3.4.1. Planning
In this step, first the researcher conducted classroom observations in order to identify the
problems. Then he conducted interviews with both the students and the English teacher to know
more about the problems in the class. After that, the researcher and the English teacher asked to

26
have the group meeting with the other teachers of speaking skill in the Division to discuss the
problems in the speaking skills and found out the most appropriate solutions to solve them. To
improve students’ participation in speaking lessons, the researcher and the English teacher
determined that information gap activities be used. Moreover, the researcher also prepared the
teaching kits like course grids and lesson plans based on the curriculum of the school. Then, with
the help from the collaborator, the researcher made a decision that story telling activities would
be used when implementing information gap activities in order to enhance the students’
involvement into learning activities in speaking classes in FLD, HPU.

3.4.1.1 Identification of Problems

Observations 1 and 2, made by the researcher and the collaborator, aimed at identifying
the problems of the students had in learning English speaking skill. Checklist I (See Appendix C)
was used to get information about the problems listed in Table 1 below; Checklist II (See
Appendix C) was used to report the students’ participation in speaking lessons before the IGA
were used.
At the same time, Checklist 1 was given to all the 30 students in the class to gather
information about the situation from their own perspective. Between 56.5 % and 83.3% of the
students had all or most of the problems listed from A1-20 and more than 70% of the students
gave the same description of how the learning activities were going on in speaking classes as
listed from B1-6. Specifically, while most of the activities in the classroom procedure demanded
students to speak in front of the whole class, this has been found to be the most anxiety
provoking. The results from the checklist showed that 60-70 % of the students felt shy and
nervous when speaking in front of others in class. It seemed that speaking in front of the whole
class is a potentially risky business in many students' eyes.
Then the researcher used the interview guidelines to talk to the English teacher who was
in charge of this speaking class to have more information about the teaching and learning process
(See Appendix A). From the three source of information mentioned above, it was realized that
the students’ participation in speaking classes was very poor due to such problems as
nervousness and shyness, lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes in speaking English and of
being corrected by teachers, poor vocabulary, negative learning styles, ineffectively organized
speaking activities and poorly illustrated lessons. In order to ensure that these were shared
problems among the students not only in class EM K17 but also in other K17 English classes, the

27
researcher asked the Head of the Division to hold a meeting with the teachers of English in
charge of K17 speaking classes, during which we shared the information about how the students
performed in speaking lessons, what difficulties they had and how the English teachers dealt
with their problems; and it was confirmed that the problems presented in the checklist below
were common among the students and the teachers of English in speaking classes.

This understanding led the researcher to choose the most typical problems to solve and
decide what action to take to help the students to get more involved in the speaking activities and
consequently improve their speaking skill.

3.4.1.2 Determining the Research Problems

After making two observations, conducting interviews with the students and the English
teacher, gathering information from the students’ self – evaluation of their own problems and
having academic meetings with colleagues, the researcher decided to choose to address the
problems related to the students’ poor participation in speaking lessons as follows.

3.4.2. Actions
The identification of the students’ problems in their English speaking lessons and the
decision to tackle the biggest obstacles preventing the students from contributing fully to the
learning activities in class have led the researcher to choose Information Gap Activities to
implement them in the English speaking lessons. After planning the activities, the researcher and
the collaborator started to take actions by making classroom observations, having meeting with
colleagues and implementing information gap activities in the teaching - learning process in
Class EM5 K17. The actions were implemented until students were seen to be more involved in
the learning activities and to improve their speaking skills. The actions were carried out in two
cycles consisting of four meetings in the 1st cycle and two meetings in the 2nd cycle.
Specifically, in Cycle 1, the researcher planned to use classroom English during the teaching and
learning process, apply retelling stories and providing the students with the words related to the
stories. In Cycle two, the researcher kept using these intervention activities and at the same time
giving the students rewards for the good performance. Hopefully, this intervention would
encourage the students to speak more English more fluently, more confidently and consequently
improve their speaking participation. The two tables below show the schedules of the two cycles.

28
Meeting Day and Date Time Material

1 Wednesday, 2 x 50 minutes - The narrative

April 5th texts entitled
2017 (09.50 a.m.–11.25 a.m.) “The Seven
Raven”
and “Jack and
The Beanstalk”
- The theory of
narrative text
and past tense
2 Friday, 2 x 50 minutes - The narrative
April 7th texts entitled
2017 (09.50 a.m.–11.25 a.m.) “King Midas
and the golden
touch” and “The
twelve dancing
princess”
3 Wednesday, 2 x 50 minutes - A narrative text
April 12th entitled “The
2017 (09.50 a.m.–11.25 a.m.) Enchantress and
The Apple Tree”
4 Friday, 2 x 50 minutes - A narrative text
April 14th entitled “The
2017 (09.50 a.m.–11.25 a.m.) Enchantress and
The Apple Tree”

Table 1: The Schedule for Cycle 1

29
 Meeting Day and Date Time Material

- A narrative text
Wednesday, entitled
2 x 50 minutes “Little Red
April 26th 2017
1 Riding
(09.50 a.m.–11.25 a.m.)
Hood” and
“The
Fisherman
-and A narrative
his
Friday, 2 x 50 minutes Flute”
text entitled “The
2 April 28th 2017 Princess And The
(09.50 a.m.–11.25 a.m.) Pea”

Table 2: The Schedule for Cycle 2

3.4.3. Observation
The first two observations were made to identify the problems the students had in
learning speaking skill and in speaking lessons. Besides, the students’ self-evaluation was also
made in order to provide more information about the teaching – learning situation. Six more
observations were made in the six meetings with the students during the two cycles applying
information gap activities, the aims of which was to reflect the benefits of using information gap
activities to increase the students’ participation in speaking lessons and to collect as much
information as possible about how to use these activities more effectively on the next occasions.
To collect the information, the collaborator used observation checklists (See Appendix C),
recorded the students’ performance, made field notes and took pictures. Besides, the researcher
also made interviews with the students, the English teacher and the collaborator as well in order
to gather more related information about the effectiveness of the application of IG activities in
the teaching -learning process.

3.4.4. Reflection
In the reflection phase, the researcher gave detailed description of the application of the
actions and at the same time analyzed the problems in and evaluate the effectiveness of using
these IG activities in the teaching – learning process. After the first cycles, the researcher and the

30
collaborator also had a critical discussion on how to improve the teaching learning process in the
next cycle.

3.5. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

The research was conducted basing on both qualitative data obtained from the classroom
observations and the interviews with the English teacher, the colleagues in the Division, the
collaborator and the students; and quantitative data gathered from the students’ speaking scores
in the pre-test, the progress test and the post-test. In order to collect these data, along with the
aforementioned instruments, observation checklists, interviews guidelines and tests with marking
scales were carefully designed. At the same time, the researcher used field notes to record the
teaching - learning process in the classroom. The detailed discussion on the justifications for and
the description of each instrument was given as follows.

3.5.1. Observation
Observation was used as a useful data collection instrument in this research because it
allows the researcher to collect all the authentic information about the situation in the class.
Burns (2010) points out that some observations are conducted in the written form by using
narrative and descriptive style. These observations are used to record the teaching - learning
process, such as the physical layout, verbal and non-verbal information, sequence of activities or
the structure of the groups.

Wallace (1998) indicates that classroom observation is a good method to collect data for
an action research. According to him, it looks at “our students: the way they work, the way they
interact, the way they respond to our teaching, their on-task and off-task behavior” (p. 105)
In addition, classroom observation is an increasingly common method for assessing teaching.
Besides, it is a means towards building the relationship with colleagues based on mutual respect
and support (Wajnryb, 1992). Both the teachers being observed and the observers have important
roles before, during and after the observation.
Moreover, according to Doan (2008), the data is more reliable and subjective when the
classroom observation is administered by non–participant observers. The information from
experienced observers with careful discussions with the researcher before and after each
observation will work. Thanks to non–participant observers, the teacher being observed

31
concentrates on her teaching. The observers, at that time, focus on observing what is happening
in the classroom and are free to make evaluation.

The first two observations were made before the action was taken by the researcher and
the collaborator using Checklist 1 (See Appendix C) to identify the problems the students had in
their speaking lessons and Checklist 2 (See Appendix C) to see how many students were on-task
during the speaking lessons. At the same time, Checklist 1 was delivered to the 30 students in
class EM 5 K17 so that they would describe their own problems, their learning style and the way
the learning activities were carried out in the speaking lessons. Then Checklist 1 was converted
into the new version consisting of 16 chosen problems to be solved, which would be used get the
information from the students’ self-evaluation of the situation at the end of Cycle 1 and 2.

During Cycle 1, another four observations were made by the four observers using
Checklist 2 and 3 to see how much students increased their participation in the speaking
activities when IG activities were implemented in the four meetings. The extracted version of
Checklist 1 was also given to the students at the end of Cycle 1 in order to get their evaluation of
the improvement on the situation. This helped the researcher make the decision what would be
the next move to solve the remaining problems.

In Cycle 2, the final two observations were made to witness the students’ increasingly
involvement in speaking lessons and the improvement in their speaking skill thanks to the
continual application of IG activities. Checklists 2, 3 were used by the observers and Checklist 1
– edited version was given to the students

3.5.2. Interviews
Interview is one of the most used techniques for collecting qualitative data. Its goal is to
conduct a conversation that explores the researcher’s focus idea (Burns, 2010). Thus, the
researcher conducted interviews with the students, the English teacher, and the collaborator in
order to find out their reactions, responses, opinions, suggestions, and expectations concerning
the implementation of IG activities in the speaking lessons. Appropriate guidelines were
designed and all the interviews were recorded so that the researcher could use them to get the
necessary information to the study (See Appendix A & B). Apart from the interviews, the

32
researcher also had an academic meeting with the colleagues from the group to discuss the
situation.

3.5.3. Tests
According to Brown (2001), a test is a method to measure a person’s knowledge or
competence in a given domain. Three tests were used by the researcher to track the improvement
of students’ speaking skills before and after using information gap activities. In all the three tests,
each pair of students was expected to choose a test paper and speak English about the chosen
task in three minutes. Their performance was assessed according to the Marking Scale developed
by the researcher basing on the authentic speaking rubric by O’Malley, J.M., and Pierce L.V
(1996) (See Appendix E), which had been introduced to the students before the tests were
actually given. In the examination room, three pairs were preparing and one pair was presenting,
which means each pair of students had about 6-9 minutes for preparation.

The Pre-test, which was given to the students before the information gap activities were
applied to the teaching – learning process, aimed at determining the students’ language level and
helping to identify the students’ difficulties in speaking skill. The five tests were designed basing
on the five topics the students had learnt in the previous weeks such as introduction about
yourself, family, houses, hobbies and school (See Appendix K) in such a way that the students
asked and answer the questions about each other about the chosen topic. Test paper 1 based on
the topic “introduction about yourself” asked the students to talk about the such things as full
name, date of birth, place of birth, daily routines etc. Test paper 2 namely “family” expected the
students to talk about information like the number of family members, their jobs, the
arrangement of housework the favorite family activities, the way you were raised etc. Test paper
3 developed from the topic “houses” exploited the following aspects: kind of accommodation,
location (city/suburb/countryside), number of rooms, favorite room(s), likes and dislikes about
the house etc. Test paper 4 used the topic “hobbies” and asked the students to talk about favorite
leisure activities, colors, foods, drinks, clothes etc. Test paper 5 exploited the topic “school’ in
such areas as school activities, favorite subjects, challenging subjects, classmates etc. Each pair
of students was expected to ask and answer the questions about the randomly chosen task in 3
minutes without the help of visual aids or notes. The specific criteria for assessment were
presented in the Marking Scale (See Appendix E).

33
 The Progress-test consisting of five test papers basing on the five stories the students had
learnt in the four previous meetings was carried out at the end of Cycle 1. This time, each pair of
students was asked to choose randomly a test paper with a series of pictures showing which story
they had to retell, but each student had only a half of the pictures and they had to retell the story
using the pictures numbered from 1-6 or 1-8. Test papers 1-5 consisted of pictures about the
stories named The Seven Ravens, The Eagle Who Lived Like A Chicken, King Midas and the
golden touch, The twelve dancing princess, Jack and the beanstalk. Both of the students were
expected to speak for 3 minutes as fluently, accurately and logically about the pictures as they
could although they could not finish the stories. The detailed requirements were presented in the
Marking Scale (See Appendix E).These tasks of retelling the learnt stories aimed at assessing
how much progress the students had made in speaking English after the Information Gap
activities were applied in the four previous lessons.

The Post-test carried out after Cycle 2 was based on the 3 stories learnt in the first for
meetings in Cycle 1 and the other 3 stories learnt in the two meetings in Cycle 2. There were six
test papers, like the Progress tests, each of which contained a series of pictures illustrating the
story they had learnt (See Appendix K). Test papers 1- 6 included pictures about the stories
named The fisherman and his flute, Little Red Riding Hood, The Princess and the Pea, The

twelve dancing Princess, King Midas and the Golden touch and The Seven Ravens. The

procedure went on in the same way it was carried out in the Progress Test, but this time the
students were expected to cover almost all of the pictures and retell the whole story briefly in
approximately 3 minutes. The detailed assessment criteria were presented in the Marking Scale
(See Appendix E). These tests aimed to assess how much better the students were getting at their
English speaking skill after further intervention of teaching techniques was taken.

During all the three tests, the students’ performance was assessed independently by the
researcher and the collaborator, both of whom took careful notes of how the students performed
the tasks using the Marking Scale during the assessment. Then their scores in the three tests were
collected, calculated and displayed in tables so that the researcher could compare the scores and
analyzed the improvement in the students’ speaking performance after the application of
Information Gap Activities.

34
3.6. INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES
3.6.1. Using classroom English during the teaching learning process
That English was used in speaking classes aimed at making the students familiar with the
target language and forming their habit of thinking and expressing their ideas in English.
In both Cycle 1 and 2, English was used to give greetings, check attendance, open the
lessons, give instructions how to do the learning tasks and give feedback on the students’
performance.
3.6.2. Applying information gap activities
Information gap activities in the form of story-telling were implemented in the speaking
classes with the view to increasing the students’ involvement in their speaking lessons. The
detailed lesson plans with IGA designed to do in pairs and groups are presented in Appendix G.
In both Cycle 1 and 2, the IGA were done in pairs and groups involving completing the
table based on the story the students watched on the video, exchanging pieces of gap information
about the stories, retelling part(s) of a story, summarizing the whole stories and giving feedback
on each other’s performance.
3.6.3. Retelling a story in front of the class
Story telling was chosen as Information Gap Activity in the speaking lessons because
together with such interesting material sources as legends, it proved to be interesting and
attractive to the students.
The story telling/retelling activities were carried out in order of difficulty and aimed at
creating curiosity and motivation for the students in learning. In Cycle 1, all the students watched
the video with the list of suggested words and then they describe the pictures first in chorus, then
they completed the parts of the story in pairs/groups. In Cycle 2, the tasks became more
challenging in the sense that the students worked in different pairs/groups doing different tasks
For example, one member watched the video and the other had to ask for information (Meeting 5
and 6), or all the students watched the video and took notes of the details, trying to remember as
much information as possible and the retold a part(s) of the story. At the end of these final
meetings, each group was asked to retell a story in such a way that each member had to retell an
unexpected part of the story until they finished their turns.

35
3.6.4. Improving students’ vocabulary
Limited vocabulary was a big obstacle to the students in their speaking lessons, so the
author determined that suggested lists of words related to the tasks be provided to the students.
At the same time the students were also instructed how to learn vocabulary effectively.
In Cycle 1, the students were given the words with pronunciation symbols and meanings
related to the learning materials.
In Cycle 2, the researcher kept providing words related to the learning materials, but the
practice was carried out in various ways which were interesting and effective to the students.
They were not only given the necessary words for their speaking tasks in each lesson, but they
also were taught how to learn vocabulary in such ways as learning words with phonetic symbols
and meanings, memorizing the words by using synonyms and antonyms etc.

3.6.5. Giving rewards to the best performance

As presented in the previous section, in Cycle 1 rewarding was not mentioned as an
intervention activity. Realizing that many students were too shy and nervous to speak in public,
in Cycle 2, the researcher decided to offer rewards to the students who performed the best.

3.7. TECHNIQUES OF THE DATA ANALYSIS

Because of the implementation of both qualitative and quantitative data in the research,
the researcher decided to use the stages of data analysis proposed by McKernan (as cited in
Burns, 1999) to analyze the data, which consist of assembling the data, coding the data,
comparing the data, building interpretations, and reporting the outcomes.

The first step was assembling the data. First of all, the data from the observation and
interviews were collected in the form of field notes, observation checklists and interview
transcripts. Then, the data were scanned in order to be analyzed more deeply in the next step. In
the coding data step, after being categorized, the amounts of data are reduced to numbers and
then it leads to the next step: comparing the data. The data were compared in order to see
whether the patterns or themes are repeated or developed across different data gathering
techniques. Hence, the next step is data interpretation when the data were interpreted by the
researcher. The final step is reporting the outcomes. The researcher discuss the data and make
sure that the findings and outcomes are well supported by the data.

36
 Meanwhile, Microsoft excels was used to analyze the quantitative data. The researcher
used this program to find out the average scores of each speaking aspect. Then, the result of the
analysis was used to identify the improvement of the students’ speaking skills.

3.8. SUMMARY
Chapter 3 has described the steps the research was carried out, the research design, the
subjects of the research, the research setting, the procedures of the research, the instruments of
the research, the data collection techniques, the actual activities used to increase the students’
participation in class and the technique of the data analysis. The next chapter will focus on the
analyzing the results of the study.

37
 CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Chapter IV presents the critical discussion on the results from the observation check lists
and the interviews. The detailed analysis on the data gathered from the students’ score of the
tests was also presented in this chapter to support the findings of the research.

As stated in the Introduction, the research aimed at improving the students’ oral
participation in speaking classes by using information gap activities. The actions were carried out
in two cycles starting on Wednesday, April 5th 2017 and ended on Friday, April 28th 2017. The
successful results of the actions in the two cycles led the researcher to decide to end the research.
The information gap activities were successfully applied and the goal of the research had been
completed. This section presents the results from such three data collection instruments as
Observation, Interviews and Tests in order to answer the research question:
RQ 1: To what extent do information gap activities in speaking lessons improve the
speaking participation of EM 5 – K17 majors at HPU?

RQ 2: To what extent do information gap activities help impvove the students speaking
performance?

4.1. FINDINGS FROM OBSERVATIONS AND INTERVIEWS

Table 5 below presents the information from Checklist 1 about the students’ self-
evaluation on the 16 biggest problems they had in their speaking lessons. The information
revealed that almost all of the students shared such psychological problems as hesitance,
shyness, nervousness, fears and unconfidence in speaking English and their dislikes of the boring
topics and of being corrected and evaluated by the teacher in class. This was proved by the
number of students with yes-answers to these problems varying between 13 to 26 equivalent to
43.3% to 86.6% among the total number of 30. Nineteen students (63.3%) reported that they had
limited vocabulary, which led to their attempt to speak Vietnamese in English speaking lessons.
Between 17 and 23 students (56.6 % – 83.3%) mentioned the ineffective ways the learning
activities were carried out in their speaking lessons.

38
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-EVALUATION N0 of students got problems

1 Be hesitant to speak English 25 (83.6%)

2 Be too shy to speak in front of the class 21 (70%)

3 Be unconfident to speak 22 (73.3%)

4 Be nervous when speaking English 18 (60%)

5 Be afraid of making mistakes in speaking English 20 (66.6%)

6 Be uninterested in the topics 19 (63.3%)

7 Disliked being corrected by teacher when speaking 19 (63.3%)

8 Being afraid of being evaluated by teacher 20 (66.6%)

9 Speak Vietnamese 18 (60%)

10 Have limited vocabulary 19 (63.3%)

Table 3: The students’ self - evaluation of their problems in English speaking lessons

N0 of students got problems

N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-EVALUATION (Total: 30)

11 Let students work individually 17 (56.6%)

12 Call on individual students to speak 23 (76.6%)

13 Correct students’ mistake when they are speaking 25 (83.3%)

14 Not organize pair work 22 (73.3%)

15 Not organize group work 21 (70%)

16 Not use visual aids: pictures, video clips… 30 (100%)

Table 4: The students’ self - evaluation on the way the teaching activities were
carried out in their class

39
 This information was coincident with that from the interviews with the teacher and the
students before IGA were employed. First, the teacher reported that she had the difficulties with
the students who had limited vocabulary, low competence in grammar and poor pronunciation,
insufficient confidence in speaking English in class and that she occasionally designed pair or
group work speaking activities in speaking lessons because they were time-consuming (See
Transcript 1A). Second, the interviews with five students also revealed that they had the
aforementioned problems. One of the students said: “I have not many words in English. I say the
wrong. Sometimes I don’t know the meaning.” Another student mentioned: “I’m shy, I afraid. I
can’t speaking English.” (See Transcript 1B). It is clear that the students even could not make a
correct sentence in terms of grammar, let alone tell or retell a story or speak about a topic.
This information seemed to have given the satisfactory account for the results from
Checklist II taken noted of during the first two observations on the student’s level of
participation. As can be seen from Table 6 below, only 6-10 students (20-33.3%) were on task
while the others failed to take part in the lessons or did their own things during the lessons.
These data showed the students’ low participation in class and the ineffectiveness of the speaking
lessons.
N0 of
State N0 Behaviour students Percent
(Total: age
30)
1 Actively take part in the pair/group work 8 26.6%
activities
2 Exchange information as required 10 33.3%

3 Retell the part of the story as assigned 8 26.6%

4 Listen actively to the partners 9 30%

ON-
TASK 5 Volunteer to do the tasks in class 7 23%

6 Give constructive comments on the partner’s 6 20%

performance
7 Ask for the teacher’s/partner’s clarification 9 30%

8 Catch up with the flow of the group work 8 26.6%

9 Passively take part in the group work 22 73.3%

40
 10 Fail to exchange information as required 20 66.6%

11 Fail to retell the part of the story as assigned 22 73.3%

12 Do personal work during the group work 18 60%

OFF -
TASK 13 Do not listen actively to the partners 21 70%

14 Fail to catch up with the flow of the group work 22 73.3%

15 Chat with friends about unrelated topics 16 86.6%

Table 5: The students’ level of participation in speaking class before the application of IGA
These results were in line with the findings from the interviews done before the
intervention with five students, the English teacher and the other three colleagues from the
Division. All the five students interviewed confessed all their psychological difficulties and
added that they found it difficult to work directly with the teacher and to be assessed individually
because they exposed all their weakness in front of the class and received a lot of comments
from their teacher and friends which made them lose face. They also mentioned their limited
source of usable words with poor pronunciation in English as one of the big obstacles in their
study. During the interviews with the English teacher and the academic meeting with the other
colleagues in the Division, they once more confirmed all these common problems among the
students and that all these negative psychological factors and their language problems limited the
students’ mental and oral participation in speaking classes.
In short, the information from Checklist 1 and from the first interviews with the teacher
and the students gave the answer to the first research question: “What factors prevented students
of EM 5 – K17 majors at HPU from participating in speaking activities?” This led the researcher
to the decision to choose the most suitable and effective solution to the problems.
Therefore, information gap activities were chosen as a practical solution to tackle the
negative psychological factors and to ease the language difficulties which prevented the students
from participating in speaking activities in class. Applied in speaking lessons in class EM – K17,
information gap activities namely storytelling and retelling activities organized in pairs and
groups proved their beneficial role in increasing the students’ oral participation in speaking
classes. The gradual increase in the number of students taking part in the speaking activities in
speaking lessons can be seen from the data in Table 7 below.

41
 State Number of students on/off task – Percentages
Meeting 1 Meeting 2 Meeting 3 Meeting 4 Meeting 5 Meeting 6
On task 11 (36.6%) 13 (43.3%) 15 (50%) 19 (63.3%) 22 (73.3%) 25 (83.3%)
Off task 19 (63.4%) 17 (56.7%) 15 (50%) 11 (26.7%) 8 (26.7%) 5 (16.7%)

Table 6: The improvement on the students’ oral participation during the six
meetings using IGA

As can be seen from Table 7, the number of students taking part in the speaking activities
increased from 11 (36.6%) in Meeting 1 to 19 (63.3%) in Meeting 4 and interestingly up to 25
(83.3%) in Meeting 6. These results showed that the implementation of IGA has proved to be
effective in enhancing the students’ participation in speaking classes. During the four meetings in
Cycle 1 and two more meetings in Cycle 2 described above, the students were reported to have
been increasingly taking part in the learning process. The detailed information from the
Observation Checklist 2 showed that the students’ participation gradually increased in the sense
that the students actively took part in the group work activities organized by the teacher by
asking and answering questions related to the story, exchanging the gap information from the
handouts as required, trying to retell the part of the story as assigned, listening attentively to the
partners and making comments on their partners’ work. Obviously, the students’ increased
interaction and confidence in speaking resulted from the appropriate application of information
gap activities.
The students’ self-evaluation of their problems in the English speaking classes after
Cycle 1 and 2 also provided the good feedback about the use of IGA. From the data in Table 8
below, we can see that the number of the students having negative psychological problems
decreased from the maximum 18 - 25 60% - (83.3%) before the intervention down to 8 (20.3%)
– 14 (30.6%) after Cycle 2. The figure of the students describing their ineffective learning style
also reduced from 18 (60%) – 20 (60.6%) to 8 (20.6%) – 13 (40.3%) after the second cycle. We
can also see the sharp fall of the number of the students with the yes responses to the statements
describing the way the learning activities were took place in their speaking classes from 21
(70%) – 30 (100%) to 0 (0% - 12 (40%) at the end of Cycle 2. These data proved that the use of
IGA helped to ease the students’ difficulties in their learning and they also showed the great

42
improvement in the teacher’s teaching techniques, which in turn improved the students’
involvement in speaking classes.
N0 of students got N0 of students N0 of students
problems got problems got problems
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-
EVALUATION Before the After Cycle 1 After Cycle 2
intervention

1 Be hesitant to speak English 25 (83.6%) 18 (60%) 14 (46.6%)

2 Be too shy to speak in front of the class 21 (70%) 16 (50.3%) 12 (40%)

3 Be unconfident to speak 22 (73.3%) 17 (56.6%) 13 (43.4%)

4 Be nervous when speaking English 18 (60%) 12 (40%) 8 (20.6%)

5 Be afraid of making mistakes in 20 (66.6%) 17 (56.6%) 14 (46.6%)

speaking English

6 Be uninterested in the topics 19 (63.3%) 14 (46.6%) 11 (30.6%)

7 Disliked being corrected by teacher 19 (63.3%) 12 (40%) 9 (30%)

when speaking

8 Being afraid of being evaluated by 20 (66.6%) 14 (46.6%) 9 (30%)

teacher

9 Speak Vietnamese 18 (60%) 14 (46.6%) 8 (20.7%)

10 Have limited vocabulary 19 (63.3%) 15 (50%) 13 (43.4%)

Table 7: Students’ self – evaluation on the their problems after Cycle 1 and 2

N0 of students got N0 of students N0 of students got

problems got problems problems
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-
EVALUATION Before the After Cycle 1 After Cycle 2
intervention

11 Let students work individually 17 (56.6%) 9 (30%) 6 (20%)

12 Call on individual students to speak 23 (76.6%) 16 (50.3%) 10 (30.3%)

13 Correct students’ mistake when they 25 (83.3%) 18 (60%) 12 (40%)

are speaking

14 Not organize pair work 22 (73.3%) 3 (10%) 1 (3.3%)

15 Not organize group work 21 (70%) 2 (6.3%) 1 (3.3%)

16 Not use visual aids: pictures, video 30 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)

clips…

43
 Table 8: Students’ self – evaluation on the way the teaching activities were carried out in
their class after Cycle 1 and 2

The amazing improvement on the students’ oral and mental involvement in the speaking
lessons can also be proved with the information from Observation Checklist III taken notes of by
the collaborator and the other three teachers. Their expression of their agreements and
disagreements on the aspects of the students’ learning behaviors and activities in speaking varied
greatly during the six meetings for the better. This can be seen from Table 9 below.
N0 ITEMS M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6
1 Students speak no English 4D 4D 4D 4D 4D 4D
2 Students speak Vietnamese 4D 4D 4D 4D 4D 4D
all the time
3 Students are hesitant to 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
speak English
4 Students are too shy to speak 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
English in front of the group
members
5 Students are unconfident to 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 4D
speak
6 Students are nervous when 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 4D
speaking English
7 Students are afraid of 4A 4A 4A 3A/1D 3D/1 3D/1A
making mistakes in speaking
English
8 Students look uninterested in 4A 4A 3D/1A 4D 4D 4D
the topics
9 Students disliked being 4A4 4A 3/1AD 3D/1A 3D/1A 4D
corrected by their partners
10 Students are afraid of being 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
evaluated in the group by
teacher
11 Students need a lot of time to 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
think carefully before
speaking English
12 Students often write down 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A

44
 what to say
13 Students often ask nearby 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
friends what to say
14 Students have limited 4A 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
vocabulary
15 Students fail to express ideas 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
in English orally
16 Students’ speaking time is 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A 4D
very short
17 Only a small number of 4A 4A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A 3D/1A
students participate in
speaking activities
18 Students just speak 4D 4D 4D 4A 4A 4A
Vietnamese when they fail to
find English equivalence
19 Students seem to be more 4D 4D 3A/1D 3A/1D 3A/1D 4A
interested in the speaking
tasks.
20 Students seem to be 4D 4D 4D 4A 4A 4A
interested in the visual aids
21 Students speak more fluently 4D 4D 3A/1D 3A/1D 3A/1D 4A
when doing pair work
22 Students speak more fluently 4D 4D 4D 4A 4A 4A
when doing group work
23 Students can express their 4D 4D 3A/1D 3A/1D 3A/1D 4A
ideas better with the help of
the vocabulary list provided
by the teacher.
24 The students’ speaking time 4D 4D 4D 3A/1D 3A/1D 4A
is longer
25 All the students are made 4D 4D 4D 4D 4D 4D
involved in the learning
activities

M = Meeting A = Agree D= Disagree

Table 9: The observers’ opinions about the students’ improvement on their
participation and language performance

45
 It is clear that the students showed the great improvement on both the amount of
participation they had in the speaking lessons and their language performance. As can be seen
from Table 9, in the first 3 meetings it was observed that the students still experienced such
negative psychological problems as hesitance, unconfidence, nervousness and fears; but in the
next three meetings these problems did not seem to be the obstacles according to the observers’
opinions (3A/1D and 4 D). The other difficulties related to the students’ language skill were
reported to be minimized in the last three meetings. Three among the four observers reported that
the students’ speaking time was longer in Meeting 4 and 5 and especially all of them agreed that
the students had the longer speaking time in the sixth meeting, which once more revealed the
great effectiveness of using IGA in the speaking lessons.
That the students’ mental and oral participation in the six speaking classes was once more
confirmed by the students themselves in the interviews after Cycles 1 and 2 (See Transcript 1 C,
1D, 2 A, 2B & 2C). This can be seen as follows.
Firstly, both the teacher and the collaborator shared the high opinion of the employment
of IGA in the 6 lessons. They both reported that the materials were interesting and appealing to
the students to such an extent that the students were actively and eagerly involved in the
speaking activities of all kinds degined by the researcher such as exchanging information about a
certain part of the story, asking and answering questions about the story, retelling a certain part
or the whole story. They also mentioned the effectiveness of providing related words to the
students and the use of videos. The increase in the students’ participation was also observed and
reported by the teachers and collaborator: “They seemed to be more responsive. I mean they
didn’t sit still when asked to take part in the activities. Instead, they tried to speak English with
their partner in the way they were expected to. Of course, some students still used the mother
tongue because they” or “Interesting and motivating. Especially the students are interested in the
video and the pictures” (Trancript 1C); “The words with transcription are easier for them to
practice. When the students were put in pairs and groups, they seemed to be more excited and
feel safer. They could speak English with more confidence” or “Effective. The students feel
much freer when speaking. They can speak English more fluently and accurately than before”
or “The students were much more motivated to speak English. They could cooperate well with
each other and retell the story much more easily than in the previous lessons.” (See Trancript 2B)

46
 Secondly, all the interviewed students showed their increasing interest in and motivation
of speaking activities done in pairs and groups, the lists of words related to the stories and the
tasks of telling the folktales attractively illustrated with the video clips and that they could speak
more English than before and they felt more interested in the speaking activities. One of the
students said: “We learn the words easier and understand the meaning.” ; and another
mentioned: “Useful and interesting. I like the video and the pictures.” They also mentioned that
they felt less afraid and more confidence and relaxed when speaking English in class. One of the
students reported: “I am not very worried any more. I often look forward to speaking lessons.
Yes, I feel safe now.” The interview with the students after Cycle 2 ended revealed the students’
great improvement not only in their participation but also in their language performance. All the
students reported that they talked more and more fluently than before. This can be seen from
their feedback: “I can speak longer sentences. I don’t stop when speaking. I can retell the story”
or “I speak English more fluent and clear than before. I can tell the story again and I don’t make
many mistakes” (See Transcript 2C)
Furthermore, the interviews with the teacher and the collaborator also mentioned the
shared information on the students’ increasing amount of involvement in the speaking classes
(See Transcript 2B, 2C). All the four observers shared the comments that the students spoke
more English and more confidently and that the students could speak longer sentences in English
and they could speak English for longer period of time thanks to the teacher’s providing them wit
This was confirmed by the one of the observer: “Effective. The students feel much freer when
speaking. They can speak English more fluently and accurately than before.” ; and by another
“The students were much more motivated to speak English. They could cooperate well with each
other and retell the story much more easily than in the previous lessons.” (See Trascript 2B)
Why has there been such great improvement? The answers lie in the application of IGA
in the form of telling and retelling traditional folktales in English in the speaking classes. The
benefits of implementing IGA can be seen in the following aspects.
Firstly, information gap activities helped both to get rid of the students’ shyness,
nervousness and fears and increased their confidence and communication. As discussed in
Chapter 2 above, pair work and group work created a very safe learning environment in which
students worked with their partners, not only with their teacher. Therefore, they felt safe and free
when speaking English without being afraid of being criticized for making mistakes. In this way,

47
they had greater amount of interaction in the activities and interacted with more people, which
gave them more communication experience.
Secondly, information gap activities boosted students’ motivation in learning speaking
classes. Interesting topics and fun activities are the most influential factors in determining
learners’ level of participation in class, for instance, activities like role-plays (Mustapha et al.
2010). Furthermore, the topic of discussion plays a vital role in making learners willing or
unwilling to speak. An interesting topic has such essential features as topic familiarity, topic
interest, and topic preparation. It goes without saying that the type of topic under discussion
influences the ease of language use to a great extent. Therefore, folktales illustrated with videos
used in these speaking lessons proved to be suitable speaking tasks for the students in speaking
classes. These stories in Vietnamese versions were very familiar to the students, so they seemed
to be more attractive and easier to them in their English counterparts. All the four observers
mentioned the fact that “Students seem to be interested in the visual aids” and “Students can
speak more with the help of visual aids”, which was in line with the students’ confessions in the
interviews that they liked the stories beautifully and attractively with music and images. It was
clear that the choice of interesting folktales attractively illustrated with clips made the students
more motivated and enthusiastic to take part in the speaking activities in class and to watch the
videos again at home both for revision and entertainment.
However, it was also reported in the observation checklist that about 20% of the students
just showed their physical participation in pairs or groups but they did not contribute much to the
shared work with their friends. The information from the interviews with the students revealed
that their failures to participate orally and mentally in the learning activities was that they did not
find out English words to express the ideas, gradually they could not catch up with the flow of
the group work. This also showed one of the problems of the teacher’s failure to monitor the
class when implementing pair work and group work. This lead to the answer to the second
research question “How should information gap activities be used in these English speaking
lessons?” which would be presented in the next section.

Furthermore, information gap activities promoted other sub-skills such as co-operation

with other partners and taking personal responsibilities when working in pairs and groups. The
extra notes by all the four observers revealed that the students made great efforts to do their
assigned tasks so as to be able to participate in the pair/group work although not all the students

48
could do it very well. The students interviewed also confessed that although the tasks were
sometimes beyond their ability, they still felt that they had to take responsibility to do them,
otherwise they would feel ashamed with their partners, which obviously showed the positive
effects of the tasks being done in pairs/groups.

In short, the appropriate application of IGA in the form of telling and retelling traditional
folktales in the six meetings has brought about a number of benefits to both the teacher and the
students including getting rid of the students’ negative psychological factors, tackling the
difficulties in their language performance and improvement on the teacher’s teaching techniques
and in turn resulted in the students’ increasing amount of mental and oral participation in the
speaking classes. Obviously, the second research question “To what extent do information gap
activities in speaking lessons improve the speaking participation of EM 5 – K17 majors at
HPU?” was satisfactorily answered.
4.2. FINDINGS FROM TESTS
In addition to the findings from the classroom observation and interviews with the
teacher of English and the students in Class EM K17, to evaluate the students’ progress in
speaking performance to confirm the effectiveness of applying Information Gap Activities, the
researcher also conducted tests including the pre-test, the progress test, and the post-test to assess
the students’ speaking performance. The test papers, the marking scale and the testing
procedures were described in detail in 3.5.3. The scoring process was conducted by the
researcher and the collaborator. The results of the pre-test, the progress test, and the post-test are
presented below.

Rater Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary

Rater 1 1.17 1.3 1.37
Rater 2 1.3 1.4 1.4
Mean Score 1.24 1.35 1.39
Table 10: The result of the Pre-test in each aspect

Rater Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary

Rater 1 2.14 2.05 2.11
Rater 2 2.26 2.11 2.17
Mean Score 2.20 2.08 2.14

Table 11: The result of the Progress test in each aspect

49
 Rater Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary
Rater 1 3.13 3.03 3.13
Rater 2 3.13 3.00 3.03
Mean Score 3.13 3.01 3.08

Table 12: The result of the Post-test in each aspect

In the Pre-test, the students’ speaking performance was a little poor. They could not
speak English fluently when they exchanged the information about the assigned topics. Most of
them seemed afraid of speaking English. They showed their limited vocabulary and their poor
pronunciation. As a result, only little amount of information was exchanged between the pair
partners. Many of the students used both Vietnamese and English while doing the test. They
were heavily dependent on notes while performing their speaking tasks and they made long and
frequent pauses. In short they had a lot of difficulties in expressing ideas in English.

After information gap activities were conducted in the four meetings of speaking classes
in Cycle 1, there could be seen certain improvement in the students’ speaking performance. The
progress could be inferred from the result of the Progress Test, which was given after Cycle 1
ended. It could be seen that the students were much less nervous, anxious and hesitant while
speaking English. Instead, they confidently and actively did the test in pairs. The students began
to express themselves by asking and answering the questions. As can be seen from the previous
sections, during Cycle 1, the students were provided with the list of vocabulary with the
pronunciation symbols in every meeting. As a result, the students not only knew more words but
they also knew how to pronounce them accurately, and they were confident enough to retell the
story more fluently than they used to. However, at this stage, many students still found help from
notes or sometimes made lengthy pauses to do memorization.

In Cycle 2, the application of information gap activities in the second cycle proved to
successfully achieve the goal of improving the students’ participation in speaking classes, which
can be seen from the result of the performance of students in the post-test. It can be seen from the
result of the post-test that the students made much progress in their speaking performance. Many
students could retell the story with appropriate tenses without using notes or pausing to
memorize the story. In addition, there was great improvement in their pronunciation in the sense
that only a few students made minor mistakes in word pronunciation. Therefore, they felt

50
confident enough to do the test in pairs and could express their ideas well. However, some
students sometimes used Vietnamese while performing their task because they could not find
words in English.

The following table presents the comparison of the students’ mean scores in the pre-test,
the progress test, and the post-test with the gain score of each aspect.

Test Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary

Pre-test 1.24 1.35 1.39
Progress test 2.20 2.08 2.14
Post-test 3.13 3.01 3.08
Gain score 1.86 1.66 1.69

Table 13: The Comparison of the Students’ Mean Scores in the Tests

As can be seen from the table above, the students’ mean scores in the speaking aspects
increased after the information gap activities were applied in the teaching - learning process. The
students’ mean scores in fluency increased 1.86 from 1.24 in the pre- test to 3.13 in the post-test.
The accuracy aspect increased from 1.35 in the pre-test to 3.01 in the post-test. The students’
mean scores in vocabulary aspect also increased 1.69 from 1.39 in the pre-test to 3.08 in the post-
test. The general findings of the students’ mean scores in the pre-test, the progress test, and the
post-test are presented in the following table.

Pre-test Progress test Post-test Gain score

Mean
1.33 2.14 3.07 1.74
Scores

Table 14: The general findings of the students’ mean scores in the tests

According to the information presented in the table, it can be seen that there was great
improvement in the students’ mean scores from the pre-test, the progress test, and finally the
post-test. The table also revealed that the students’ mean scores in the post-test was higher than
those in the pre-test and in the progress test. The gain score was 1.74. In conclusion, the results
from the three tests once more confirmed the students’ improvement in speaking performance in
pairs and groups which resulted from the effectiveness of using information gap activities.

51
 It is obvious that the final research question “To what extent do information gap activities
help improve the students’ speaking performance?” got the satisfactory answer. This led the
researcher to come to the end of the study.

4.3. SUMMARY
This chapter has presented the critical analysis on the results and the thorough discussion
on the findings of the research. A conclusion drawn was information gap activities would be of
great value in improving the students’ speaking participation in particular, in helping them to
improve their speaking performance in general. Basing on the findings, in the next chapter the
researcher would like to make some suggestions on how information gap activities should be
organized in speaking classes.

52
 CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter presents the summary, the conclusion of the research, the implications and
the suggestions for further studies.

5.1. RECAPITULATION
Research question 1: the report described the effectiveness of using IGA such as using
target language in classroom, providing related words with pronunciation symbols, retelling
stories, giving rewards. These activities proved to have positive and stimulating effect on the
students’ participation and language performance. The improvement could be seen clearly in the
sense that the students got rid of the negative psychological factors and got much more involved
in the speaking activities. Their participation now means not only their physical attendance in
class but also their oral and mental involvement in solving learning tasks.

Research question 2: the research proved the students’ great improvement on their
language performance. The difference in the scores of the three tests: Pre-tests, Progress tests and
Post-tests once more confirmed the great success of applying IGA in speaking lessons and, as a
result, showed the students’ big progress in their speaking performance. After the IGA were
employed in the speaking lessons, the students could speak English for longer period of time and
made fewer mistakes. Especially, the speakers were much more confident and relaxed, thus gave
much better performance.

5.2. SUGGESION ON HOW IGA SHOULD BE USED IN SPEAKING

Basing on the results of the study, the researcher would highly recommend using IGA in
speaking lessons in such ways as follows. First, the teacher is expected to understand the
students’ situation with their strengths, weaknesses and needs. Second, he is supposed to make
careful preparation for appropriate materials, teaching equipment such as overhead projectors,
video clips, pictures or photos…. Next, it is the organization of the learning activities that is
essential. The activities should be carried out in pairs and groups so that the students have more
opportunities to interact with their partners and teacher and more importantly, they have “safe
environment” to work in where they are not afraid of making mistakes and being corrected by

53
teachers. Finally, feedback from teachers and friends with praises and rewards is also necessary
and encouraging to the students.

5.3. CONCLUSION

The research was conducted on April 2017 with a view to improving the speaking
participation of the first year English majors at Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong
University by using information gap activities. From the analysis of the findings of the research
in the previous chapter, it can be stated that the use of information gap activities successfully
enhanced the students’ speaking participation. In other words, the progress of the students’
speaking participation was greatly attributed to the implementation of information gap activities
in the teaching - learning process. This can be seen in the following analysis.

Firstly, being conducted in pairs and/or in groups, the information gap activities created
more chances for the students to practice their speaking by enabling them to interact with the
other friends. Thus, the students’ motivation and confidence were increased when they
participated in information gap activities. Because these activities expected students to use the
target language with high frequency, the students got used to it and then felt less nervous and
more confident to speak English.

Secondly, the improvement could be seen from the teaching learning process. Since the
information gap activities were used in speaking classes, the students did not use to be passive in
the class; instead, they actively participated in the practice activities by asking and answering the
questions. Moreover, the students’ improved comprehension of the classroom English also
helped them to understand the target language spoken by the teacher.

Thirdly, the students’ vocabulary became much richer than it used to be. When the
students were exposed to lists of related words in every meeting, they knew more new words
which they could use while performing their tasks of filling in the gap information. The
implementation of such activities in the speaking class also enabled the students to communicate
with the other peers by asking and exchanging the information in the target language. Then, the
application of information gap activities proved to be able to improve the students’ speaking
participation.

54
 One more conclusion is that during the application of Information Gap Activities, the
teachers had many difficulties in time management and class management. As discussed in the
previous chapter, while the students working in pairs and groups they were making a lot of
unexpected noise and it was not easy to overcome this problem. Another difficulty for the
teachers is that these activities are very time-consuming, so the teacher hardly meets the time
requirements. Instead of carrying everything in class, the teachers have to set the final part of the
lesson as homework.

5.4. IMPLICATIONS
According to the findings of the study, the implementation of information gap activities
succeeded in improving the students’ speaking participation in such a way that the created many
opportunities for students to practice their speaking. The information gap activities also
promoted the students’ motivation and confidence while speaking English. As a result, it is
suggested that English teachers use these activities in the teaching - learning process of speaking.

5.5. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

Because of time limitation and the researcher’s limited ability, this research has revealed
many shortcomings in the sense that it did not solve as many difficulties/problems of the students
as it was expected and the researcher just focused on solving some typical problems only. There
are still many difficulties while applying information gap activities such as time and class
management. Therefore, the researcher hopes to be able to go on with a further study in the
future so that he can solve these problems and that these problems can be dealt with from other
perspectives by other more experienced researchers/practitioners and go into further detail on
how IGA should be organized in different types of speaking classes.

55
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 APPENDIX A
Interview Guidelines

The Interview Guideline

Before the Implementation of the Actions

These questions are asked before the Information Gap Activities are implemented. The answers
are briefly taken notes of.

A. For the English teacher

1. How do your students in Class EM K17 speak English?

2. What difficulties do you often experience when teaching speaking skill?

3. What techniques do you use to teach speaking skill?

4. Do you often design speaking tasks for students to work in pairs or in groups?

5. What kind of media do you often use in your speaking lessons?

6. In your opinion, what kinds of learning activities are effective in speaking lessons?

7. What is your opinion about the information gap activities?

8. Do you ever or often use the information gap activities in speaking lessons?

B. For the students

1. Do you like speaking lessons? Why (not)?

2. What difficulties do you experience when speaking English?

3. What speaking activities are done in your speaking lessons?

After the Implementation of the Actions

These questions are asked after the implementation of Information Gap Activities and the
answers are briefly taken notes of.

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A. For the English teacher and the Collaborator

1. What do you think of the Information Gap Speaking Activities used in these four/two
class meetings?

2. Were the activities being carried out properly?

3. What do you think of students' responses/attitudes/motivation during the speaking

activities?

4. What needs to be improved for the activity to be more effective at the next meeting?

B. For the students

1. What do you think of the learning activities used in these four/two class meeting?

2. What difficulties did you have in participating in the learning activities?

3. Do you like doing speaking tasks in pairs or in groups in the way we do in these
four/two lessons?

4. What do you think of the way we learnt vocabulary and practiced pronunciation in
these four/two lessons?

5. Did these speaking activities motivate you to speak English?

6. Did you feel more confident to speak English after the activities?

7. Is your English speaking any better after these four/two lessons?

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 APPENDIX B
Interview Transcripts

63
TRANSCRIPT 1 A
No : Interview 01
Date : October 27th 2016
Time : Before the application of the Information Gap Activities in Cycle 1
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher

N0 QUESTIONS ANSWERS

1 How do your students in class EM
K17 speak English?
- Most students speak English with mistakes in pronunciation such
as n-l, s-S... and they can’t pronounce mid sound and ending
sounds.
- They also can’t make sentences correctly. For example, they
forget to puts at the end of nouns and verbs or they sentences
such as “she is girl beautiful.
- Most students are very shy and nervous when being asked to
speak. Some of them shiver!

2 What difficulties do you often
experience when teaching speaking
skill?
- A lot! First, the class is big, more than 30 students, so it is very
tiring to arrange learning activities.
- There are many lazy students in class, they fail to do the
homework, they don’t work in class, either. Haz!
- Many students don’t understand my instructions in English, so
they can’t do their tasks. Many can’t speak English so they speak
Vietnamese in English speaking lessons!

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3 What techniques do you use to teach
speaking skill?
4 Do you often design speaking tasks
for students to work in pairs or in
groups?
5 What kind of media do you often use
in your speaking lessons?
6 In your opinion, what kinds of
learning activities are effective in
speaking lessons?
7 What is your opinion about the
information gap activities?
8 Do you ever or often use the
information gap activities in speaking
lessons? Why (not)?
- A lot! I model the pronunciation and ask the students to repeat
after me. Sometimes, I ask them to repeat the whole sentence!
- I also encourage the students to volunteer to speak and give them
encouraging assessment.
- Yes, but it’s not easy to carry out these tasks in class because
there are too many students in class. It’s also very noise
- I occasionally use pictures or video clips.
- Modeling
- Repeating after the teacher
- Acting
- They are interesting for speaking lessons because the students
have the chance to exchange information and then they can
practice reading, listening and speaking at the same time.
- But the texts used for this activity should not be too long or
complicated, otherwise, the students can’t understand it.
- I don’t usually use this activity because it’s time-consuming to
prepare the material and to deliver in class.
65
TRANSCRIPT 1B
No : Interview 02
Date : October 28th 2016
Time : Before the application of the Information Gap Activities in Cycle 1
Respondent : R: Researcher
S1: Student 1
S2: Student 2
S3: Student 3
S4: Student 4
S5: Student 5

STT QUESTIONS STUDENT 1 STUDENT 2 STUDENT 3 STUDENT 4 STUDENT 5

1 Do you like Yes, but not No, not at all. No, nothing. Yes, I do but I can’t Oh! No, not very
very much. speak much. much
speaking lessons? Because it’s Because I can’t
Why (not)? It is fun but bored and speak English. Because I don’t know Because It difficult.
difficult. difficult. many words.
It’s I like the teacher’s
English.
She speak English
very good.

2 What difficulties do I’m shy. I’m I don’t know Not read words I have not many words I don’t know many

66
 you experience afraid words. in English. words.
when speaking No, and I can’t I can’t say I say the wrong. I’m shy, I afraid.
English? speak the words. sentences.
Sometimes I don’t I can’t speaking
know the meaning. English.

3 What speaking Speak with I don’t know We write We speak about I don’t know to
friends. words, read topics. speak in English but
activities are done in
words. the teacher speak
your speaking Say words We speak with and we speak after
We speak teacher. her, we also speak
lessons? English. about some topics
Sometimes I work
as family, house…
alone.
Sometimes I work
with my desk mate.

67
TRANSCRIPT 1C

No : Interview 03
Date : April 17th 2017
Time : After the Information Gap Activities are applied in Cycle 1
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher

N0 QUESTIONS ANSWERS

1 What do you think of the Information Gap Speaking
Activities used in these 4 class meetings?
Interesting and motivating. Especially the students are interested in
the video and the pictures.
The words with transcription are easier for them to practice.
When the students were put in pairs and groups, they seemed to be
more excited and feel safer. They could speak English with more
confidence.

2 Were the activities being carried out properly? I think yes. The activity of filling in the gap information created the
real needs for the students to speak English , the instructions were
clear and the speed was slow enough for the students to follow.

3 What do you think of students'
responses/attitudes/motivation during the speaking
activities?
They seemed to be more responsive. I mean they didn’t sit still when
asked to take part in the activities. Instead, they tried to speak English
with their partner in the way they were expected to.
Of course, some students still used the mother tongue because they

68
 couldn’t find English words!

4 What needs to be improved for the activity to be The texts should be shorter and there should be more prompts for the
students
more effective at the next meeting?

TRANSCRIPT 1D
No : Interview 04
Date : April 17th 2017
Time : After the Information Gap Activities are applied in Cycle 1
Respondent : R : Researcher
C : Collaborator

N0 QUESTIONS ANSWERS

1 What do you think of the Information Gap Speaking - Motivating.

Activities used in these 4 class meetings?
- The students appeared very interested in the activities,
especially the video.
- They can also pronounce the words thanks to the
transcription, and the pair work and group work create a safe
environment for students so, they spoke English more than
usual.

2 Were the activities being carried out properly? - Most of them were ok.
- The instructions were clear so the students could understand

69

3 What do you think of students'
responses/attitudes/motivation during the speaking
activities?
4 What needs to be improved for the activity to be
more effective at the next meeting?
what to do and how to do it.
- The pair work and group work were effective for the students
and they could speak more.
- They were in a more active position. They were ready to get
involved in the speaking activities.
- They were not as shy as before.
- Some students couldn’t find English words when retelling the
story so they spoke VietNamese
- The teacher should give more monitoring when the students
are doing the pair work and group work.
- There should be more prompts for the students so that they
can retell the story more easily.
70
TRANSCRIPT 2A
No : Interview 05
Date : April 14th 2017
Time : After the Information Gap Activities are applied in Cycle 1
Respondent : R : Researcher
S1-5: Students 1-5

STT QUESTIONS STUDENT 1 STUDENT 2 STUDENT 3 STUDENT 4 STUDENT 5

1 What do you think of the It was It was fun I was happy It was fun and It is interesting
interesting, Sir not so difficult.
learning activities used in because I can
The video and
these 4 class meetings? I like the video work in group, I like the videos
and pictures. the pictures and the pictures.
and discuss with They are
interesting.
my friends. beautiful and
interesting

2 What difficulties did you The difficulty I couldn’t It was so Some words are I had to speak
have in participating in the was when we remember all difficult to retell difficult to read Vietnamese
learning activities? were asked to the details of the a story when I and remember! sometimes
speak. We had story. hadn’t because I can’t
not fully memorized it! remember
remembered the I can’t speak English words
story. clearly.

71
3 Do you like doing speaking Yes, how to say Yes, but it’s Very much. Yes, a lot. I feel Not much
it… em … there difficult to hear less afraid of because my
tasks in pairs or in groups in I am more safe
were videos, my friends making mistakes friends can’t
the way we do in these 4 stories, because they when working help me because
fairytales, the speak too small. with my friends. they don’t know
lessons?
stories were also English
good.

4 What do you think of the The good thing I can pronounce Interesting but We learn the Easier than
is that I can the words words easier and before
way we learnt vocabulary and there were some
understand the understand the
practiced pronunciation in new words and difficult words I meaning.
we were taught
these 4 lessons? can’t pronounce
how to read
them and I sometimes
forgot the
meanings.

5 Did today’s speaking I want to speak Yes, I like to Yes, of course. I I’m not sure but I speak more
English more, speak more like to speak I want to speak English than
activities motivate you to
but it’s still English. more. English more before.
speak English? difficult. than before.

72
6 Did you feel more confident I don’t know, Maybe, I’m not Yes, I don’t feel I am more I am not very
but I felt a bit nervous as afraid as before. excited in worried
to speak English after the
not too nervous. before English lessons
activities?

7 Is your English speaking any (Uhm, may be a I speak English I speak English My teacher said I can speak more
little, after our more quickly more fluent and I speak more sentences. I can
better after these four
last meeting, and clearly. clear than English and read the words
lessons? Linh and I were before. better than easier.
speaking English I can retell the before.
all the time until story but I still I can tell the
we went home, made some story again and I
Sir. mistakes. don’t have to
read from the
notes

73
TRANSCRIPT 2B
No : Interview 06
Date : April 28th 2017
Time : After the Information Gap Activities are applied in Cycle 2
Respondent : R : Researcher
T : Teacher
C : Collaborator
N0 QUESTIONS
1 What do you think of the
Information Gap Speaking
Activities used in these 2
class meetings?
2 Were the activities being
carried out properly?
3 What do you think of
students'
TEACHER’S ANSWERS
- Effective
- The students feel much freer when
speaking.
- They can speak English more fluently
and accurately than before.
- The instructions were clearer
- The pair work and group work were
well designed and organized
- The students were much more
motivated to speak English.
- They could cooperate well with each
COLLABORATOR’ ANSWERS
- Interesting and manageable for
students.
- They could do their tasks more
easily.
- Yes, the teaching and learning
activities went on smoothly.
- The activities attract the students’
attention very well.
- They were much more confident
and more active when they got
involved in the speaking activities.
74
 responses/attitudes/motivation
during the speaking activities?
4 What needs to be improved
for the activity to be more
effective at the next meeting?
other and retell the story much more - Only a few students spoke
easily than in the previous lessons. VietNamese during the task.
- The teacher should keep modeling the - There should be more monitoring
pronunciation of the new words so that and encouragement
the students could pronounce them
correctly when retelling the story.
- There should be a further task so that
the students could tell their own story.
75
TRANSCRIPT 2C
No : Interview 07
Date : April 28th 2017
Time : After the Information Gap Activities are applied in Cycle 2
Respondent : R : Researcher
S1-5: Students 1-5

STT QUESTIONS STUDENT 1 STUDENT 2 STUDENT 3 STUDENT 4 STUDENT 5

1 What do you think of the Very interesting. Useful and The group work It was fun and Attractive and
interesting. useful. I could
learning activities used in Especially the interesting. was very good. I
speak more
these two class meetings? video and and my friends The videos and English than
pictures. I like the video the pictures are before.
could work beautiful and
and the pictures.
together interesting

effectively.

2 What difficulties did you Just some I still forgot It was so There were still I had to speak
have in participating in the difficult words. some details of difficult to some difficult only a little
learning activities? the story. memorize the words Vietnamese
story, so I had to sometimes
I can’t speak use little because I
very quickly. Vietnamese. couldn’t
remember

76
 English words.

3 Do you like doing speaking Yes, much more Yes, we can Very much. Yes, a lot. I Yes, we can
interesting than speak to each don’t feel afraid speak freely and
tasks in pairs or in groups in We help each
working alone. other. of making we talk a lot.
the way we do in these two other and correct mistakes any
mistakes for more
lessons? each other.

4 What do you think of the Good because I can improve Interesting and I We learn the Easier than
it’s easier to my words easier and before
way we learnt vocabulary and know more
remember the pronunciation. understand the
practiced pronunciation? words and their words. meaning.
meaning.

5 Did the speaking activities I want to speak Yes, I like to Yes, of course. I Yes, they made I feel like speak
English more. speak more like to speak me want to more English
motivate you to speak
English. more. speak English than before.
English? more than
before.

6 Did you feel more confident Yes, I am more Maybe, I’m not Yes, I feel safe I am more eager I am not very
confident. hesitant as now. to have English worried any
to speak English after the
before lessons more. I often
activities? look forward to
speaking
lessons.

7 Is your English speaking any I could speak for I speak English I speak English The teacher gave I can speak
more than 2 more quickly more fluent and me good words longer sentences.

77
better after these two lessons? minutes. and clearly. clear than when I speak I don’t stop
before. English. when speaking. I
I couldn’t do it I can retell the can retell the
before story but I still I can tell the story.
made fewer story again and I
mistakes. don’t make
many mistakes

78
 APPENDIX C
Observation Checklists
---------------------------------------------

OBSERVATION CHECKLIST I
FOR TEACHER’S AND STUDENTS’ SELF EVALUATION

This checklist is used for students to describe their own learning style and the way
learning activities are carried out in class by their teacher and for the teacher of
English to observe the students’ difficulties and describe her own teaching style!
Put √ to a column YES or NO to show your opinion

N0 OBSERVATION ITEMS YES NO

A How the students learn in speaking classes

1 Speak no English

2 Be hesitant to speak English

3 Be too shy to speak in front of the class

4 Be unconfident to speak

5 Be nervous when speaking English

6 Be afraid of making mistakes in speaking English

7 Be uninterested in the topics

8 Never volunteer to speak

9 Disliked being corrected by teacher when speaking

10 Being afraid of being evaluated by teacher

11 Need a lot of time to think carefully before speaking English

12 Write down what to say

13 Ask nearby friends what to say

14 Speak Vietnamese

15 Make mistakes in word pronunciation

16 Fail to pronounce correctly such sounds: s- S, tS - tr, Z – j-

Dz, n-l, r – d…

17 Fail to use correct parts of speech: nouns, adjectives,

adverbs…

18 Make mistakes in verb tenses

79
19 Make mistakes in grammar structure: Subject-Verb
agreement…

20 Have limited vocabulary

B How the teacher teaches in speaking classes

1 Let students work individually

2 Organize pair work

3 Organize group work

4 Use visual aids: pictures, video clips…

5 Provide lists of new words

6 Use English in class

7 Call on individual students to speak

8 Correct students’ mistake when they are speaking

9 Evaluate students’ performance in class

10 Compare students’ performance

OBSERVER

80
 CHECKLIST 1 – EXTRACTED VERSION
FOR STUDENTS’ SELF EVALUATION

This checklist is used for students to describe their own learning style and the way
learning activities are carried out in class by their teacher!
Put √ to a column YES or NO to show your opinion
N0 OBSERVATION ITEMS OPINION
YES NO

1 Be hesitant to speak English

2 Be too shy to speak in front of the class

3 Be unconfident to speak

4 Be nervous when speaking English

5 Be afraid of making mistakes in speaking English

6 Be uninterested in the topics

7 Disliked being corrected by teacher when speaking

8 Being afraid of being evaluated by teacher

9 Speak Vietnamese

10 Have limited vocabulary

11 Let students work individually

12 Call on individual students to speak

13 Correct students’ mistake when they are speaking

14 Not organize pair work

15 Not organize group work

16 Not use visual aids: pictures, video clips…

81
 OBSERVATION CHECKLIST II
FOR TEACHERS
MEETING: ………………………………………………………….
OBSERVATION TIME: ……………………………………………

This checklist is used for teachers to evaluate the students’ participation in speaking
tasks in class before and after the application of Information Gap Activities. The
criteria on whether the students are on task or off task are as follows.

State N0 Behaviour N0 of Percentage

students
(Total:
30)
1 Actively take part in the pair/group
work activities
2 Exchange information as required

3 Retell the part of the story as assigned

4 Listen attentively to the partners

ON-
TASK 5 Volunteer to do the tasks in class

6 Give constructive comments on the

partner’s performance
7 Ask for the teacher’s/partner’s
clarification
8 Catch up with the flow of the group
work
9 Passively take part in the group work

10 Fail to exchange information as

required
11 Fail to retell the part of the story as
OFF - assigned
TASK 12 Do personal work during the group
work
13 Do not listen attentively to the
partners
14 Fail to catch up with the flow of the
group work
15 Chat with friends about unrelated
topics

OBSERVER

82
 OBSERVATION CHECKLIST III
FOR TEACHERS
MEETING: ………………………………………………………….
OBSERVATION TIME: ……………………………………………

IMPROVEMENT ON STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION

Put √ to a column to show your opinion on the students’ improvement on
participation

N0 ITEMS AGREE DISAGREE

1 Students speak no English

2 Students speak Vietnamese all the time

3 Students are hesitant to speak English

4 Students are too shy to speak English in front of the group

members

5 Students are unconfident to speak

6 Students are nervous when speaking English

7 Students are afraid of making mistakes in speaking English

8 Students look uninterested in the topics

9 Students disliked being corrected by their partners

10 Students are afraid of being evaluated in the group by

teacher

11 Students need a lot of time to think carefully before speaking

English

12 Students often write down what to say

13 Students often ask nearby friends what to say

14 Students have limited vocabulary

15 Students fail to express ideas in English orally

16 Students’ speaking time is very short

17 Only a small number of students participate in speaking

activities

18 Students just speak Vietnamese when they fail to find

English equivalence

19 Students seem to be more interested in the speaking tasks.

83
20 Students seem to be interested in the visual aids

21 Students speak more fluently when doing pair work

22 Students speak more fluently when doing group work

23 Students can express their ideas better with the help of the
vocabulary list provided by the teacher.

24 The students’ speaking time is longer

25 All the students are made involved in the learning activities

OBSERVER

84
 APPENDIX D
Field Notes
---------------------------------------------

No : FN. 01
Date : Thursday, October 27th 2016
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 7.55 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

R came to the school and met ET in the department. R said as confirmed before
that he wanted to observe the teaching-learning process of class EM 1 - K17. Then, they
went to class EM 1 - K17. The class started at 9.50 a.m. ET began the class by greeting
her students and checking their attendance. Then, ET started the lesson by asking about
the students’ experiences during the school holiday. Many students were enthusiastic
when they answered the question and some of them used Vietnamese to answer it. ET
managed to listen to each answer and started a dialogue by asking some students more
questions so that they gave the answers to the questions.

After exchanging some questions and answers about holiday, ET gave an example
of her holiday experience in Cat Ba island. She showed her pictures in Cat Ba with some
other teachers in the slide show. After that, she showed a text about Cat Ba. The text was
read aloud by ET while the students looked at it. After finishing her reading, ET asked Ss
some questions related to the text, for example: When did my trip take place? How many
events occurred?

Next, Ss are required to show the generic structure of recount text. Some of them
answered the questions. After discussing the information and the structure of the text, ET
asked Ss to have a conversation with their peer. ET instructed Ss by giving the questions
that would be used by them, for example: Where did you go? When did it happen? What
did you do? How did you feel? Then, she provided an example on how to do a
conversation by using her Cat Ba text. Some students listened to the explanation but some
others, especially students who were sitting at the back rows of the class, seemed to be
sleepy and did not listen to the explanation.

After giving an example, ET asked Ss to report the stories of their partner in front

85
of the class. However, many of them seemed confused with the instruction. Thus, ET
repeated and explained her instruction again by using Vietnamese. She read aloud the
questions and asked Ss to repeat after her. Another example was provided to make Ss
understand what to do and how to do it. However, she only gave the example orally. She
did not use any text or picture to support her example. After listening to ET’s clearer
explanations, Ss finally began doing their activities. While Ss were doing the task, ET
was walking around the class to monitor and help Ss with the task. When the time was
up, ET asked Ss to finish their work and perform the speaking task in front of the class.

However, no Ss wanted to go to the board. They said that they could not fully
memorize their story. They looked too afraid and anxious to perform in front of the class.
Finally, a female student volunteered to do the task. She could tell her story until the end
although there were still many sudden stops and some hesitation. Her pronunciation was
poor with many mistakes in word stress and there was repetition of words because of her
limited vocabulary. Then, after the 1st performance of that female student, the other Ss
felt more confident and came in front of the class to perform their story. For the rest of
the time, the whole class listened to the other 11 Ss’ speaking. Most of them were not
very fluent and made many mistakes in pronunciation, vocabulary and/or grammar.
During this lesson, no media like pictures or videos were used to help Ss tell the story.
The class ended at 11.35 a.m with no more activity.

86
No : FN. 02
Date : Wednesday, April 5th 2017
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 9.50 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

R and C arrived in the school at 9:30 a.m. Then, they met ET and R explained that
he would play videos for the first meeting. R asked permission to enter the class first to
prepare the materials and equipment and then ET agreed. It was 09.45 a.m when R, C, ET
and students were already in the classroom. R had finished installing the laptop and turn
on the projectors for learning activities.

Since the time was already 9.50 a.m, R decided to start the meeting. R greeted Ss,
“Ok, good morning everyone, how are you doing?” Ss were not replied. Then, R greeted
again by saying, “How are you?” then, Ss answered, “Fine, thank you”. After greeting, R
checked Ss’ attendance list. Then, R asked a student to help him delivered the handouts.
R asked Ss to look at the slide show. R showed some pictures of familiar stories/tales and
asked some questions to Ss related to the pictures. Next, R showed a list of vocabulary
that Ss would find in the story. R asked Ss to focus on the new words and their meaning.
First, R modeled the pronunciation of each word, then Ss were asked to pronounce each
word by repeating after R. “Okay, so how could we read this word “enchantress”? R
asked. Ss answered, “en-trun-chis”. R said, it is /ɪnˈtʃɑːn.trəs/. The students repeated it
well, /ɪnˈtʃɑːn.trəs/”. “Okay, very good”, R said. The students were repeating it well. It
seemed that the pronunciation was not really familiar with the students, so when they
understood how to pronounce these words, they were interested. Then, R said that he was
going to play a video entitled “The Seven Ravens”. He asked Ss to focus on the slide. Ss
seemed excited and enthusiastic. R played the first video. When the videos ended, R
asked Ss about the story along with the characters appeared in the story. Next, R asked Ss
to do task 4 (choosing T/F statement) in pairs. Before doing the task, Ss were told to read
the instructions and also the statements in task 4. Ss were also reminded to ask R if they
found any difficult words. After a while, R checked the answers by inviting some
students to read the statement first and stated T/F to the statement. The activity was done
until all the statements were answered correctly.

Then, R described in short about narrative text. R appointed some Ss to answer hí

87
questions related to the narrative text. R discussed the aim and the generic structure of the
text. Next, R gave the instruction of the next activity (task 6). R asked Ss to fill in the
table based on the story they would watched. Then, the 2nd video entitled “Jack and the
Beanstal” was played and Ss watched it enthusiastically. The video was played twice.
After that, Ss started to work with task 6. R walked around the class to monitor and check
Ss' activities. A few moments later, some Ss were invited to perform their works. R gave
feedback of the answer to the whole class. This action was kept doing until all the tables
were answered. Then, R gave explanations of simple past tense in brief including the
main function and its use in the sentences.

Finally, Ss were asked to do the last exercise (task 7) which required them to
change the inappropriate words to the suitable one in the text entitled “The Eagle who
lived like a Chicken”. Because of limited time, R decided to leave the task for the next
meeting. With R’s instructions, Ss summarized the lesson that day. At the end, R closed
the lesson by saying good bye.

88
No : FN. 03
Date : Friday, April 7th 2017
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 9.50 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

R came to meet ET before entering the class as usual. ET continued her role as an
observer as last meeting. Then, R started the lesson at 9.50 a.m and greeted Ss. Then, he
checked the attendance list. After that, he reviewed the material of the last meeting about
narrative text and its generic structure. Ss were enthusiastic to answer the questions.
Next, R discussed with the students the last task the task that had not been finished yet
(task 7) in the last meeting. Some Ss were appointed to answer the questions. Many Ss
focused on the task and some did not. The class was a little bit crowded since some Ss
just came to the class. Then R asked Ss who were just came to continue their last meeting
task. After 5 minutes, R asked some Ss to perform the task by changing incorrect words
with the correct ones. While discussing the task, Ss’ wrong pronunciation was corrected
by R and he asked them to repeat after him by saying, “…repeat after me …“Most of Ss
were listening to R carefully while a few of them paid no attention.

After completing the discussion of task 7, R moved to the next activities. He

presented a list of vocabulary that would be used in the next materials. Ss were asked to
look at the slide and repeat every word after him. R also checked if Ss’ understood the
meaning of each word to make sure that they would get no difficulty with the later task.
Then, R introduced the first information gap task and asked Ss to work in pairs.

Ss had to complete the missing part of the story by having conversation with their
peers in pairs. They could not look at their friend worksheet. They were expected to do
that until they could complete the whole story. R went around the class to monitor
students’ activity. Many of Ss still did not understand the instruction, so R explained it
again by using Vietnamese till they understood. The researcher also gave help to any Ss
that found difficult words by requiring them to search the word on the dictionary first. If
they still did not get the meaning, R would give the antonym, synonym or brief
explanation of the word to make Ss understood.

Ss were given 15 minutes to do the task but many of them could not finish their

89
story in time, so R gave some more minutes for them. After Ss finished their work, R
discussed the story with the whole class. R invited some Ss to tell the story by asking
them some questions. “Okay, so what is the story about?” Some Ss answered, “King
Midas, sir“. Other Ss answered, “King Midas and his golden touch …” “So what
happened to King Midas?” R continued to ask questions and students answered until the
story was complete. Next, R introduced the 2nd task: Ss were required to make groups of
five or six. Then, R distributed the story for each group which each story was divided into
some pieces of papers. Each Ss of every group got a piece of paper (a part of the
completed story). R asked Ss to complete the whole story of their group by asking each
other teammates to share their parts of story to the other group members. Before that, R
also gave the list of vocabulary. After discussing the meaning and also pronouncing the
vocabulary, Ss were asked to start their work. While students were doing the task, R was
walking around the class to monitor and check Ss’ activities. Many students asked R
about some difficult words and also the instructions they did not fully understand. Some
of Ss were doing the activity enthusiastic and just a few of them who were busy doing
other things which were not related to the task.

Then, Ss were asked to tell their story in front of the class. However, no groups
were ready to perform the task. Ss said, “chúng em chưa thuô ̣c thầ y a ̣”. R said that it was
fine to perform anything they got and Ss were allowed to use both Vietnamese and
English to retell the story. Finally, when the time was up, there were three groups
performed. Most of them could tell their parts though some of them still used both
Vietnam and English to retell. They were also still hesitant and could not pronounce
many words correctly. R ended the class by reviewing that day’s materials and also
evaluating students’ performances. Then R said good bye and left the class.

90
No : FN. 04
Date : Wednesday, April 12th 2017
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 9.50 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

R with the C came to the class at 09.50 a.m. R greeted and checked the attendance
of Ss. Then, R reviewed materials of the last meeting. However, some Ss were still busy
talking with their friends. After Ss were quite, R asked about the story they had done last
meeting. Some Ss could answer the questions however some others were still busy
chatting with other Ss or doing their own business. The class situation was still a little bit
crowded. A few moments later, the class became quiet and then R started the lesson by
forming groups. He asked Ss to count from 1 to 6 and groups were formed by gathering
Ss with the same number. After the groups were formed, the representative of each group
received some pieces of story. After confirming all groups got their stories, R provided a
list of vocabulary that they would see in the story. Ss were asked to read and tell the
meaning of the words, then R corrected their pronunciations if it was wrong. After
previewing the pronunciation and the meaning of new words, R provided Ss the
instruction and explained the next activity. R asked Ss to discuss and understand the
meaning of the story in their group. Ss were given 15 minutes to discuss and exchanging
their parts of the story. Ss were doing their task while R moved around the class to
observe and monitor students’ activities. Many Ss wrote down or memorized their story.
Some Ss also discussed the meaning of their story. Some others asked about the meaning
of some words, “Sir, what is holy man?” Then, R answered, “You know, it is someone
who come from the heaven, like god or angel. Then, the student replied, “à vâng ạ … Sir,
thank you”.

After 15 minutes passed, R asked Ss to reform a new group by finding the color of
their paper (there are total 6 different colors) with the other group members who have the
same color as them. Ss were then busy finding their new group.. After a while, Ss were in
their new groups and then R started gaving the instruction. Ss were asked to complete a
story by sharing each member’s part of the story based on the content of each piece of
paper. After that, they had to perform the whole story in front of the class. Ss started their
discussion in the group.

91
 They shared their own part of the story to the other group members. R was going
around the class and monitoring Ss activities. R sometimes also answered students’
questions about vocabulary and pronunciation. After a while, R asked the representative
of each group, to take a paper that would decide their turn to perform. Unfortunately, the
time was up when the bell rang. Before closing the lesson, R announced that the speaking
performance would be done in the next meeting. R also said that he would make it as Ss’
speaking assessment. Then, R reviewed the vocabulary they have learned that day.
Finally, R ended the lesson by saying good bye.

92
No : FN. 05
Date : Friday, April 14th 2017
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 9.50 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

The class started after the break time at 9.45 a.m. R and C entered the class. Some
Ss still stayed out of the class. While waiting for Ss to come, R prepared the materials.
After all Ss came back to the classroom, R started the lesson by greeting students and
checked their attendance. Then, R announced that they would have a performance that
day and Ss’ speaking performances would be assessed by R. After that, R asked Ss to
move to their groups. R gave the story again, and Ss were provided 30 minutes to prepare
their story before performing it. While Ss were discussing in their group, each student
was provided a speaking assessment paper. R moved around the class to check students’
activity while Ss were discussing their stories with peers. Some of them were also trying
to memorize the story. 30 minutes later, Ss were required to pay attention to R. Before
starting the performance, R gave explanation about the speaking rubric paper the Ss had
just got. Ss were asked to evaluate their friends’ speaking performance and gave score on
the rubric paper. After Ss had understood, R asked the first group to perform their story.
The performance activity continued from the first to the last group. After that, all the
speaking rubric papers were collected. Before ending the lesson, R evaluated students’
performance. R closed the lesson by saying good bye.

93
No : FN. 06
Date : Wednesday, April 26th 2017
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 9.50 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

R and C went to the school at 9:25 a.m. and then he came to the office to meet the
English teacher. R said that today he would teach folklores and explained in brief the
activities that would be done. Thus, R and C left the office first in order to prepare the
materials. They went to the class and prepared the handouts and projectors for the
meeting.

The bell rang at 9.50 a.m. and Ss were already in the class. R started the lesson by
greeting Ss and checked students’ attendance. Then, R started presenting some famous
folklore with the pictures on the slide show. R asked Ss if they recognize these stories
based on the pictures and they answered the questions enthusiastically. Next, R showed
some vocabularies with the transcript. R asked Ss to read them. He also provided them
the handout of the vocabulary so that they could use it later. R asked Ss to repeat the new
words after him and explained the pronunciation for Ss. After that, R played a video of
the story “Little Red Riding Hood”. Ss were watching it quietly. After watching the
video, Ss were asked whether the video was clear enough or not. Ss said that they would
like to watch the video again. So, R played it once more. After finishing watching the
video, R checked students’ understanding by asking them, “Ok, do you understand the
story?” The Ss answered, “Yes, sir”. Then, R displayed some comprehension questions
related to the story on the slide show and Ss were required to answer them. R discussed
the answers together with the Ss. Ss were answering the questions enthusiastically.
“Okay, what is the moral value of the story?” The teacher tried to ask the students again.
Some students tried to answer it. “Em ... we should be careful with our temptation and we
should believe in our family”.

They also had some different questions, “… Sir, how to say, đoàn tụ in English?”.
“You mean reunite, R-E-U-N-I-T-E?” The researcher replied. “Emm ... yes, the red
riding hood reunited with her grandmother”.

Thus, after answering all questions, R moved to the information gap task. R asked Ss to

94
work in pairs by sitting face to face where student A faced the slide and student B faced
student A. Then, in turn each student read part of a story silently and retold it to the other
who could not see the slide. Then, after understanding the story, student B must answer
some questions that were also read by student A by writing the answers on their paper.
This activity was done in turn.

After answering all questions, R discussed the answers together with Ss and they
were actively doing this activity. There was still twenty minutes left. R asked the students
to try, but there were no students who wanted to volunteer. R then said that he would give
a chocolate bar to Ss who would like to perform. Some Ss looked too afraid to stand up.
Finally, a student raised her hand to volunteer and perform in front of the class. Although
that student was not able to deliver the story fluently, she could finish the story
completely. Then, another student wanted to go to the board. Not like the previous one,
this student had a better speaking performance. She was fluent enough to retell the whole
story. After that, R continued to invite other Ss. However, there was no response. Thus, R
decided to end the lesson. Before that, he reviewed the materials that day and asked
students’ opinion of the lesson. Finally, R ended the lesson by saying goodbye.

95
No : FN. 07
Date : Wednesday, April 28th 2017
Place : Class EM 5 - K17
Time : 9.50 a.m.
Activity : Classroom observation
Respondent : R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher C : Collaborator
Ss : Students

R and C arrived in the school at 09:00 a.m. Then, they went to the office to meet
ET and discussed about the current situation of the class. Then R and C came to the class
and prepared the materials that would be used. The bell rang at 09.50 a.m and R started
the class by greeting Ss. Some Ss were still busy talking to their friends while some of
them also had not come in the class. After a while, all Ss were already in the class. After
checking their attendance, R announced that today would be their last lesson and he
would take the students’ speaking scores. Then, R distributed vocabulary handouts to Ss
and showed the content of vocabulary on the slide. R asked Ss to read through the
vocabulary quickly first. R explained the meaning of each word and then he asked Ss to
repeat after him.

Then, R introduced the next activity - information gap. Ss were divided into six
groups. Then, R gave the instructions of the activity to Ss and gave a sheet of paper to
each group. Each group needed to send a member. The task of this student was to read a
part of a story, memorize the story they had read, and then came back to his/her group
and retold the story to the groups. The groups needed to write the complete story on the
given paper. The actions were repeated till each group could finish the complete version
of the story. Thus, to motivate the students, R informed that he would give rewards to the
group that could retell the story the best. The students seemed excited about that. They
were enthusiastically doing the task. The activity was expected to run within 30 minutes.
All groups did the task seriously. There were just some members of one or two groups
that were busy talked to another member instead of doing the task. When R was asked by
some Ss the meaning of some difficult words, he suggested them to check the dictionary
first. Then, if they were still not able to understand the meaning of the words, R would
help them.

When time was up, R asked Ss whether they complete the whole story or not.
After Ss replied that they had got the full version of the story, R asked Ss in to perform
the story in group. Ss were not allowed to bring notes while retelling the story. The

96
activity started from the first to the last group when each group’s representative went to
the board and retell the story while R and C were evaluating their performance. After all
groups had performed, R reviewed activities which Ss completed that day. After that, R
ended the lesson and left the class by saying good bye.

97
 APPENDIX E
The Speaking Rubric

No Aspects Score Criteria Indicators

Hesitates too often when speaking,

which often interferes with
1 Fluency 1 Poor
communication

Speaks with some hesitation, which

often interferes with communication
2 Fair

Speaks with some hesitation, but it does

not usually interfere with
3 Good
communication

Speaks smoothly, with little hesitation

that does not interfere with
4 Excellent
communication

Uses basic structures, make frequent

errors
2 Accuracy 1 Poor

Use a variety of structures with frequent

errors, or uses basic structures with only
2 Fair
occasional errors

Uses a variety of grammar structure, but

makes some errors
3 Good

Uses a variety of structures with only

occasional grammatical errors
4 Excellent

Uses only basic vocabulary and

expressions
3 Vocabulary 1 Poor

Uses limited vocabulary and

expressions
2 Fair

98
 Uses a variety of vocabulary and
expressions, but makes some errors in
3 Good
word choice

Uses a variety of vocabulary and

expressions
4 Excellent

Adapted from O’Malley, J.M., and Pierce L.V. 1996. Authentic Assessment for English
Learners: Practical Approaches for Teachers. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company

99
 MARKING SCALE

No Aspects Score Criteria Indicators

- Hesitates too often when

speaking, which often interferes
1 Fluency 1 Poor
with communication
- Slowly responds to the partner
- Speaks with some hesitation,
which often interferes with
2 Fair
communication
- Tries to respond to the partner
but still slowly
- Speaks with some hesitation, but
it does not usually interfere with
3 Good
communication
- Manages to respond quickly to
the partner
- Speaks smoothly, with little
hesitation that does not interfere
4 Excellent
with communication
- Responds quickly and naturally
to the partner
- Uses basic structures, make
frequent errors such as sentences
2 Accuracy 1 Poor
without verbs, subject-verb
agreement…
- Makes noticeable mistakes in
pronunciation such as n-l, dz-z,
r-z, tS-s…
- Speaks with plain intonation
- Uses a variety of structures with
frequent errors, or uses basic
2 Fair
structures with only occasional
errors
- Makes fewer mistakes in
100
 pronunciation such as n-l, dz-z,
r-z, S-s, tr - tS…
- Speaks with less plain intonation
- Uses a variety of grammar
structure, but makes some errors
3 Good
- Makes much fewer mistakes in
pronunciation such as dz-z, S-s,
tr - tS…
- Speaks with appropriate
intonation
- Uses a variety of structures with
only occasional grammatical
4 Excellent
errors
- Makes minor mistakes in
pronunciation such as dz-z, S-s,
tr - tS…
- Speaks with interesting
intonation
- Uses only one word - phrases
and basic expressions
3 Vocabulary 1 Poor
- Makes mistakes in part of speech
of words, plural and singular
nouns…
- Uses limited vocabulary and
expressions
2 Fair
- Makes mistakes less often in part
of speech of words, plural and
singular nouns…
- Uses a variety of vocabulary and
expressions, but makes some
3 Good
errors in word choice
- Uses a variety of vocabulary and
expressions
4 Excellent
- Make almost no errors in word
use

101
 APPENDIX F
Course Grids
---------------------------------------------

HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

TEACHING SCHEDULE

- Subject: Speaking 2
- Teacher: Nguyễn Thị Lệ Hằng
- Time: Term 2 School – Year: 2016 – 2017
- Class: English Majors K17
- Assessment:
+ Progress Test: ongoing assessment during the term
+ Final Test: Individual oral performance

Week Number of Contents

class hours

1 2 Talk about yourself

2 2 Talk about family

3 2 Talk about raising a family

4 2 Describe houses

5 2 Talk about your most embarrassing experience

6 2 Talk about your best/worst memories

7 2 Talk about a turning point in your life

8 2 Tell stories about your life

9 2 Tell stories (legends, fables…)

10 2 Tell your favorite legend

11 2 Talking about your favorite hobbies

12 2 Describing your ideal job

102
 13 2 Describing non-professional jobs in VN

14 2 Describing professional jobs in VN

15 2 Review

References:

- Teacher’s detailed lesson plans

- Pre-Intermediate Lifelines
- Headway Pre-Intermediate
- Speaking 1+2 Hanoi University
- English vocabulary in use Pre-Intermediate (Stuart Redman)
- Websites:
 https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/king-midas-and-the-golden-touch
 http://shortstoriesshort.com/story/the-seven-ravens/
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niBus8oCaS4
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCpAYajmvo
 https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/enchantress-apple-tree
 https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/the-eagle-who-lived-like-a-chicken
 http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TwelDanc.shtml
Ngày 15 tháng 8 năm 2015

Trưởng khoa Tổ trưởng Giảng viên

Ths. Hà Thị Vân Tiên Ths. Nguyễn Ái Thi Nguyễn Thị Lệ Hằng

103
 APPENDIX G
Lesson Plans
---------------------------------------------

LESSON PLAN

School : HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY

Class : English Major 5 – K17

Semester :2

Subject : English

Text Types : Narrative

Skill : Speaking

Time Allocation : 8 x 50minutes (4 meetings)

A. Target Speaking Competence

Using simple functional oral and monologue texts to retell stories and interact with the
surrounding environment.

B. Basic Speaking Competence

Using accurate, fluent, and acceptable spoken language to retell simple and short stories
and interact with the surrounding environment.

C. Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to be able to understand the story and
retell the story in their own words.

D. Indicators

Students are able to:

1. Convey the information in a spoken a narrative text

2. Identify the generic structure of a narrative text

3. Use the simple past tense to retell a story

4. Complete the missing parts of a story by exchanging information with the other
friends.

104
5. Retell a story with the students’ words.

E. Learning Materials

See Appendix H Learning Materials

F. Learning Media

LCD, Laptop, Videos, and pictures

G. Learning Method

Genre-Based Approach

H. Teaching – Learning Activities

MEETING 1

N0 TEACHER’S STUDENTS’ACTIVITIES TIME

ACTIVITIES
1 Warming-up Activities - Greeting 10’
- Greeting - Informing their attendance
- Checking the attendance - Warming up
- Informing the learning
objective and learning
activities.

2 While – Speaking 65’

Activities - Look at the pictures and actively 25’
2.1. Building Knowledge of answer the questions given by the
the Field teacher
- Show the picture to - Study the vocabulary and try to
the students pronounce them with the teacher’s
- Ask questions about guidance
the picture
- Provide related
words and help the
students to practice
pronouncing them.

2.2. Modeling of the Text - Watch the “1st video. Then, do Task 3 30’

105
 - Give the students the (choosing T/F statement)
detailed explanation of what - Study and listen to the explanation of
they have to do and how to a narrative text with the teacher’ help.
do it. - Watch the 2nd video. Then complete
- Play the 1st video entitled the table based on the story (Task 5)
“The Emperor’s New - Study the information about simple
Clothes”. past tense.
- Play the 2nd video entitled - Do Task 7
“Jack and the beanstalk
3 Closing Activities 25’
- Summarize the - Work with the teacher to
lesson summarize the lesson. (3-4
- Give feedback on students do this task)
what the students do - Give feedback on what they do
and how they do it and how they do it
- Give reflection on - Give reflection on the teaching –
the teaching – learning process
learning process - Take the homework
- Give the students - Say goodbye
homework
- Say goodbye

MEETING 2

N0 TEACHER’S STUDENTS’ACTIVITIES TIME

ACTIVITIES
1 Warming-up Activities - Greeting 10’
- Greeting - Informing their attendance
- Checking the attendance - Warming up
- Informing the learning
objective and learning
activities.

106
2 While – Speaking 65’
Activities 1. Provide the answers of the previous 10’
1. Discussing with the materials (homework) about simple past
students the answers of the tense.
previous materials
(homework) about simple
past tense. 2. Study the vocabulary and try to 10’
pronounce them with the teacher’s
2. Instructing the students to
guidance.
practice the pronunciation of
the words.

3. Instructing the students to 3. Do first information gap activities by 20’

do first information gap filling blank passages by exchanging
activities: filling blank some pieces of story entitled “King
passages by exchanging Midas and the golden touch” to
some pieces of story entitled complete a whole story in their own
“King Midas and the golden words. (Task 8)
touch” to complete a whole
story in their own words.
(Task 8) 4. Do the second information gap 20’
activities: in group, complete a story
4. Instructing the students to
entitled “The twelve dancing princess”
do the second information
by sharing a piece of story to the group
gap activities: in group,
members (Task 9).
complete a story entitled
“The twelve dancing
princess” by sharing a piece
of story to the group
members (Task 9).

3 Closing Activity - Work with the teacher to 25’

- Summarize the
lesson
- Give feedback on
what the students do
and how they do it
- Give reflection on
summarize the lesson. (3-4
students do this task)
- Give feedback on what they do
and how they do it
- Give reflection on the teaching –
learning process

107
 the teaching – - Take the homework
learning process Say goodbye
- Give the students
homework
- Say goodbye

MEETING 3

N0 TEACHER’S STUDENTS’ACTIVITIES TIME

ACTIVITIES
1 Warming-up Activities - Greeting 10’
- Greeting - Informing their attendance
- Checking the attendance - Warming up
- Informing the learning
objective and learning
activities.
2 1. Review the last meeting 1. Review the previous lesson with the 65’
materials. teacher 25’

2. Arrange for the students 2. Study the vocabulary and try to

to practice pronunciation.
3. Arrange for the students
to work in groups. (the first
ones)
pronounce them with the teacher’s
guidance
3. Comprehend a piece of story with the
group members (first group)

4. Form a new group 4. Form a new group (second group), 30’

(second group), the arrange
for each student to tell a part
of the story until the whole
group complete a story
entitled “The Enchantress
and The Apple Tree” (Task
10)
the arrange for each student to tell a part
of the story until the whole group
complete a story entitled “The
Enchantress and The Apple Tree” (Task
10)

3 1. Together with the 1.Together with the teacher, summarize 25’

students, summarize the the lesson.
lesson
2. Reflect on what has been learnt in the

108
 2. Ask the students to reflect lesson.
on what they have got from
the lesson.
3. Feedback for the learning process.
3. Get feedback for the
learning process. 4. Take homework and information for
the next meeting.
4. Set homework and give
information for the next 5. Say goodbye
meeting.

5. Say goodbye

MEETING 4

N0 TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES STUDENTS’ACTIVITIES TIME

1 Warming-up Activities 10’

- Greeting - Greeting
- Checking the attendance - Informing their
- Informing the learning objective attendance
and learning activities. - Warming up
2 Review the last meeting materials Review the lesson 65’
1. Retell parts of the stoty to 25’
1. Ask a student to retell the first
complete the task, listen
part of the story they learnt in the
attentively to the story tellers
previous lesson, stop them in the
and go on when asked to.
middle and ask the others to go on.
2. Retell the whole story
Keep doing this until they complete
the story.

2. Ask some students to take it in

turn to retell the whole story

Arrange for the students to work in Work in groups of three to retell 30’
groups of three to retell the story of the story of “The Enchantress
“The Enchantress and The Apple and The Apple Tree” under the
Tree” in the following way: teacher’s instructions:

109
 - Show the video for the first
time.
- Ask the students to write
down key words about the
key details of the story.
- Ask them to recall as the
whole group.
- Show the video the second
time.
- Ask the students to practice
retelling the story.
- Add details or edit the
details.
- Check the students’ memory
and speaking skill by
showing the video the last
time, pause to emphasize,
edit the information or
correct the mistakes in
pronunciation.
3 1. Together with the students,
summarize the lesson
2. Ask the students to reflect on
what they have got from the lesson.
3. Get feedback for the learning
process.
4. Set homework and give
information for the next meeting.
5. Say goodbye
- Watch the video for the
first time.
- Write down key words
about the key details of
the story.
- Recall as the whole
group.
- Watch the video the
second time.
- Practice retelling the
story.
- Add details or edit the
details.
- Give feedback with the
teacher’s assessment.
1.Together with the teacher, 25’
summarize the lesson.
2. Reflect on what has been
learnt in the lesson.
3. Feedback for the learning
process.
4. Take homework and
information for the next
meeting.
110
 5. Say goodbye

I. Sources

https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/king-midas-and-the-golden-touch

http://shortstoriesshort.com/story/the-seven-ravens/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niBus8oCaS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCpAYajmvo

https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/enchantress-apple-tree

https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/the-eagle-who-lived-like-a-chicken

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TwelDanc.shtml

J. Assessment

1. Assessment Indicators

Indicators of achievement The technique The Instrument

1. Students are able to
Performance Test See Appendix H
understand the information in a
spoken narrative text
2. Students are able to express
the information of a narrative
text
3. Retell a story with
students’ own words.

2. The Speaking Rubric

See Appendix E
Hải Phòng, ………. April 2017
The English Teacher The Researcher

Nguyễn Thị Lệ Hằng Phan Thành Nam

111
 LESSON PLAN

School : HAI PHONG UNIVERSITY

Class : English Major 5 – K17

Semester :2

Subject` : English

Text Types : Narrative

Skill : Speaking

Time Allocation : 4 x 50 minutes (2 meetings)

A. Target Speaking Competence Speaking

Expressing meaning in simple functional oral and monologue text in the form of recount,
and narrative to interact with the surrounding environment.

B. Basic Speaking Competence

Expressing meaning in simple short monologues using accurate, fluent, and acceptable
spoken language to interact with the surrounding environment in recount and narrative
texts.

C. Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to overcome the weaknesses existing
in the previous lessons such as the failure to pronounce difficult words, the temptation to
use Vietnamese, to memorize the details of the stories so that they will be able to
understand the story and retell the story in their own words without the help of the notes
or the teacher’s and friends’’prompts.

D. Indicators

Students are able to:

1. To pronounce words correctly.

2. convey the information in the spoken and written narrative text

3. Use appropriate and related words to express a story

4. Retell a story with the students’ words.

112
E. Learning Materials

See Appendix H Learning Materials

F. Learning Media

Projector, Laptop, Videos, and pictures

G. Learning Method

Genre-Based Approach

H. Teaching – Learning Activities:

CYCLE 2 – MEETING 1

N TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES STUDENTS’ACTIVITIES TIM

0 E
1 Warming-up Activities 10’
- Greeting - Greeting
- Checking the attendance - Informing their
- Informing the learning objective and attendance
learning activities. - Warming up
2 1. Building Knowledge of the Field 1. Building knowledge of the 65’
field 25’
- Showing the pictures and asking the
- Look at the pictures and
students questions.
actively answer the questions
- Help the students to study the vocabulary given by the teacher.
by modelling the pronunciation of the words. - Study the vocabulary and try
to pronounce them with the
- Give instructions in English. Keep
teacher’s guidance
explaining until the students understand what
to do and how to do it.
2. Practicing parts of the
2. Modeling of the Text
tasks
- Show a video entitled “The Little Red - Watch a video entitled “The
Riding Hood”. Little Red Riding Hood”.

- Ask the questions related to the video (task - Answer the questions related
3 to the video (task 3)

113
 3. Joint Construction of the Text 3. Joint Construction of the 30’
Text
- Arrange for the students to work in pairs in
such a way that they exchange their part, ask Work in pairs under the
and answer the questions as follows. teacher’s guidance.
+ Student A: face the video and tell the the - Take it in turn to be A
story, then ask Student questions about the and B.
story. - Try to make
+ Student B listen to Student A and try to contributions to
memorize the story and answer the retelling the whole
questions. story.
- Keep doing this until the students - Try not to use
memorize the whole story. Vietnamese when
- Give praises and rewards to the students retelling the story
who did the good jobs.
- Criticize the students who used Vietnamese
when retelling the story
3 1. Together with the students, summarize the 1.Together with the teacher, 25’
lesson summarize the lesson.

2. Ask the students to reflect on what they 2. Reflect on what has been
have got from the lesson. learnt in the lesson.

3. Get feedback for the learning process.

4. Set homework and give information for 3. Feedback for the learning
the next meeting. process.

5. Say goodbye 4. Take homework and

information for the next
meeting.

5. Say goodbye

114
 CYCLE 2 – MEETING 2

N TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES STUDENTS’ACTIVITIES TIM

0 E
1 Warming-up Activities 10’
- Greeting - Greeting
- Checking the attendance - Informing their
- Informing the learning objective and attendance
learning activities. - Warming up

2 1. Joint Construction of the Text 1. Joint Construction of the 65’

Text 25’
- Help the students to pronounce the words
related tot he story corectly by modelling the - Study the vocabulary by
pronunciation and asking them to practice trying to pronounce the words
reading them aloud. with the teacher’s guidance.

- Put the students in groups of in such a way - Work in groups of four,

that each group sends a member to memorize taking it in turn to memorize a
a part of story entitled “The Princess and the
pea” and tell it to the group members.
- Keep doing this until each member gets the
turn (Task 6).
- Criticize the students who used Vietnamese
when retelling the story
part of story entitled “The
Princess and the pea” and tell
it to the group members.
- Keep doing this until each
member gets the turn (Task 6).
- Try not to use Vietnamese
when retelling the story

2. Independent Construction of a Text 2. Independent Construction 30’

of a Text
- Put the students in groups of three.
- Work in groups of three.
- Ask them to watch the video of the story of
Keong Mas and take note while watching it. - Watch the video of the story
of Keong Mas and take note
- Ask them to take it in turn to retell the story
while watching it.
in their own words.
- Take it in turn to retell the
- Give praises and rewards to the students

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 who did the good jobs. story in their own words.

- Criticize the students who used Vietnamese - Try not to use Vietnamese
when retelling the story when retelling the story
3 1. Together with the students, summarize the 1.Together with the teacher, 25’
lesson summarize the lesson.

2. Ask the students to reflect on what they 2. Reflect on what has been
have got from the lesson. learnt in the lesson.

3. Get feedback for the learning process.

4. Set homework and give information for 3. Feedback for the learning
the next meeting. process.

5. Say goodbye 4. Take homework and

information for the next
meeting.

5. Say goodbye

I. Sources

http://storyberries.com/the-princess-and-the-pea/

https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/the-fisherman-and-his-flute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba2hJM3DxG4&t=20s

J. Assessment

1. Assessment Indicators

Indicators of achievement The technique The Instrument

1. Students are able to
Performance Test See Appendix H
understand the information in
a spoken narrative text
2. Students are able to express
the information of a narrative
text
3. Retell a story with

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 students’ own words.

4. Speaking Assessment Rubric

See Appendix E

Hải Phòng, ………. April 2017

The English Teacher The Researcher

Nguyễn Thị Lệ Hằng Phan Thành Nam

117
 APPENDIX H
Learning Materials
---------------------------------------------

The Learning Tasks and Materials of Narrative Text Cycle 1

Task 1

Look at the following pictures. Are you familiar with them? Which one is your favorite?

Task 2

Learn the meaning of the following words. Then, try to pronounce them.

No Word Transcript Meaning

1 hatch /hætʃ/ to (cause an egg to) break in order to

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 allow a young animal to come out

2 eaglet /ē.glət/ a young eagle

3 soar /sɔːr/ to rise high in the air while flying without

moving the wings or using power

4 imitate /ˈɪm.ɪ.teɪt/ to behave in a similar way to someone or

something else

5 throne /θrəʊn/ the special chair used by a ruler,

especially a king or queen

6 holy /ˈhəʊ.li/ very religious or pure

7 sprinkle /ˈsprɪŋ.kəl/ to drop a few pieces or drops of

something over a surface

8 puzzled /ˈpʌz.əld/ confused because you do not understand

something

9 sorceress /ˈsɔː.sər.əs/ a woman who has magical powers and

who uses them to harm other people

10 cloak /kləʊk/ a loose outer piece of clothing without

sleeves, that fastens at the neck, and is
worn instead of a coat

11 feast /fiːst/ a special meal with very good food or a

large meal for many people

12 trap door /ˈtræp ˈdɔr/ a door in a floor or ceiling that leads to

another, often hidden room

13 invisible /ɪnˈvɪz.ə.bəl/ impossible to see

14 proof /pruːf/ a fact or piece of information that shows

that something exists or is true

15 enchantress /ɪnˈtʃɑːn.trəs/ a woman with magical powers

16 widow /ˈwɪd.əʊ/ a woman whose husband or wife has died

and who has not married again

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17 diligence /ˈdɪlɪdʒəns/ action that is considered reasonable for
people to be expected to take in order to
keep themselves or others and their
property safe

Task 3

Watch a story entitled “The Seven Ravens”. Then, decide whether the following
statements are true or false based on your understanding.

No Statement T/F

1 After having 7 sons, the father still wanted to have a daughter

2 The father told his daughter that she had 7 brothers and he cursed
them to become ravens.

3 When grew up, the daughter decided to find her brothers

4 To unlock the glass mountain, the daughter used the key she got
nearby

5 When 7 ravens came, the daughter touched them and made them
transformed into 7 brothers.

Task 4

Study the following explanation about narrative text.

Narrative

Purpose : To amuse or entertain the audience. It also can be to make the audience think
about an issue, teach them a lesson, or excite their emotions.

Text Organization:

- Orientation in which it tells the characters of the story, the time and place of the
story.

- Complication that shows a series of events in which the main character

attempts to solve the problem,

- Resolution shows the ending of the story containing the solution.

Task 5

Listen to a story entitled “Jack and the beanstalk”. Then, complete the following
table based on your understanding of the story.

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 Characters

How the story

began

Problem(s)

How the story

ended

Task 6

Study the following explanation.

Simple Past Tense

1. Simple Past Tense is used to talk about activities of situations that began and
ended in the past.

Examples:

- One day, Jack went into the castle.

- Jack did not know the name of the castle.

- Did you go to my place yesterday?

2. Most simple past verbs are formed by adding –ed to a verb.

- The merchant plucked a rose.

- Cinderella arrived home on the midnight.

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3. Some verbs have irregular past forms. You can look up your dictionary to find the
list of irregular verbs.

- go — went — gone

- eat — ate — eaten

- fall — fell — fallen

Task 7

Read the following text. Decide the generic structure.

The Eagle Who Lived Like A Chicken

Once upon a time, by the mountainside, lived an eagle. The eagle had laid four
large eggs in its nest. Then one day, there was a massive earthquake. As the earth shook,
one of the four eggs (roll) down the valley into a chicken farm.

When the chickens (find) the extremely large egg, they (decide) to protect it. They
(treat) it just as they treated their own eggs. Eventually, the eagle’s egg (hatch) along with
the others. Now, the chickens (is) chickens and knew nothing of eagles and their babies.
So, the eaglet was treated like a chicken and (is) raised like one of them.

One day, the eaglet was looking up at the sky. And an eaglet soaring in the sky
caught his attention. So, the eagle tells all his chicken comrades that he too (want) to soar
like the eagle. The other chickens only (laugh) at him. “You?” they teased him, “You are
no eagle! You are a chicken, like the rest of us. And chickens don’t fly!”

The baby eagle was happy with his chicken family, but he (seem) to me missing
something. Every day, the baby eagle would (look) at the sky and long to fly. And every
time he voiced out his dreams about flying, he would be told the same thing, “You cannot
fly, you’re a chicken and that is all you’ll ever be!”

As the chickens began growing up, they (imitate) their mother. The little chicks
began walking and eating like her. And the poor eagle had no choice but to do the same.
As time went by, the chicks grew up to be chickens. And the eaglet too became an eagle.

Over time, the eagle stopped dreaming about flying in the open skies.
Furthermore, the eagle (stop) talking about it too. As the years (pass), the eagle (live)
more and more like a chicken and less like an eagle. And he (die) like a chicken.

Task 8

Do it in pairs. Complete the following story entitled “King Midas and the golden touch”
by asking the missing parts of the story to your friend. Then, retell your whole story.

Student A’s sheet

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 King Midas and the golden touch
Once there lived a king named Midas. He has a large kingdom. He had many
palaces. But still, he was not happy. He wanted to have more gold as he was greedy.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
He touched his throne and it changed into gold. He touched the chairs, the tables,
vases, and statues and all of them turned into gold. King Midas was happy beyond words.
He thought he was the richest man in the world.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

King Midas was shocked. “Oh no! I do not want any more gold. I want my dear
daughter back. Holy man, take back your boon, I beg of you.” He cried. The holy man
appeared and gave him a bottle of water and said, “Sprinkle this water on all the things
that have been changed into gold.”
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Student B’s sheet

King Midas and the golden touch.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
One day as he was paying, a holy man appeared, King Midas asked: “Grand me a
boon Holy Man! Whatever I touch should turn into gold!”
A Holy Man said: “Son, your wish is granted.” The King became very happy.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Happily, he then ordered his dinner. As soon as he touched it, it turned into gold.
The King was astonished. He could not eat or drink anything. Suddenly, his daughter
rushed in. As he put his arms around her, his daughter changed into a statue of gold.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

When King Midas sprinkled the water, all the things came into their original form.
King Midas was happy now. He had learned a lesson, “Gold does not give the happiness”

Task 9
Make a group of six. Then, each member will have different piece of story. Complete the
whole story by sharing your story with your
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 The twelve dancing princess
Once upon a time there was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. The
strange thing about them was that every morning their shoes were found to be worn off as
if they had been dancing all night. The king was puzzled and announced that whoever
would find out where the princesses went every night could marry anyone of them.

Many kings came to try their luck but they all failed to find the secret. An old
soldier heard about this and decided to try his luck. He went to a sorceress, who gave him
a cloak that would make him invisible. She also warned him not to drink the wine, which
one of the princesses would bring for him.

Then the soldier went to the king. The king received him with full honour. At
night, a feast was organized where the princesses served wine to him. He secretly threw
away the wine and pretended to be asleep. The princesses, thinking that the soldier was
asleep, went underground through a trap door.

The soldier put on the cloak that would make him invisible and followed the
princesses. He saw the princesses entering a beautiful garden. Then, twelve princes came
in twelve boats and took the princesses to a castle across the lake where they all danced
the whole night till their shoes were worn.

The soldier saw the same happenings three nights in a row. On the fourth day, he
told the king about the place where the princesses went every night. As proof, he showed
one of the golden cups from which they drank wine. As his reward, he chose to marry the
eldest princess.

Task 10
Make six big groups. Then, learn a part of given story in the group. After that, form a
new group and share the story you know to the new group members to complete the story.

The Enchantress and The Apple Tree

Once upon a time, there was a widow who had three sons. They wanted to get
married soon but in the village, there wasn’t a girl as they wanted. An old woman lived in
this village and she was known to be an Enchantress. One day, the three brothers decided
to ask her where they could find their future wives.

The eldest brother wanted to have a beautiful wife, the middle brother wanted a
rich wife and the youngest brother wanted simply a wife who was in love with him. The
old lady told them that there was a big apple tree in the garden of a castle. They had to
pick the three most beautiful apples from this tree and take them to her. In addition, they

124
had to carry some bread and wine, but not to eat or drink anything.

The next day, they left and walked all day. They were exhausted and the two
oldest brothers decided to eat the bread and drink the wine but the youngest didn’t. The
second day, they found the tree and picked the three most beautiful apples. Suddenly, the
apples opened and the three girls came out.

A beautiful lady asked the oldest brother, “Have you got any bread for me? Could
I have some wine?” “No, I haven’t,” he replied and the lady disappeared. The same thing
happened when a very rich lady asked the old brother for some bread and wine. When a
simple but nice girl asked the youngest brother, he gave her the food because he had not
eaten or drunk.

The older brothers started to cry due to their stupidity. The four people went back
to the Enchantress. There was a surprise for them because, by her, there were the other
two girls. The old woman smiled and said, “Thanks to the kindness and diligence of your
brother. I decided to return your future wives.” Eventually, all the brothers were very
happy, but the happiest was the youngest brother because beauty fades, richness gives
many concerns but true love never disappears.

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 The Learning Tasks and Materials of Narrative Text Cycle 2

Task 1
Look at the following pictures. Try to guess the title of the story.

Task 2

Learn the meaning of the following words. Then, try to pronounce them.

No Word Transcript Meaning

1 flute /fluːt/ a tube-shaped musical instrument with a

hole that you blow across at one end
while holding the tube out horizontally to

126
 one side

2 brilliant /ˈbrɪl.jənt/ extremely intelligent or skilled

3 manner /ˈmæn.ər/ the way in which something is done

4 seashore /ˈsiː.ʃɔːr/ the land along the edge of the sea

5 protrude /prəˈtruːd/ to stick out from or through something

6 melodious /məˈləʊ.di.əs/ very pleasant to listen to

7 tune /tjuːn/ a series of musical notes, especially one

that is pleasant and easy to remember

8 haul /hɔːl/ a usually large amount of something that

has been stolen or is illegal

Task 3

Watch the video entitled “Little Red Riding Hood”. Then, answer the following
questions according to the video you watched.

1. Who are the characters of the story?

2. What is the problem of the story?

3. How is the story end?

4. What is the moral value you can take from the story?

Task 4

In pairs, do the following instructions:

- Student A read the text on the projector (face the screen)

- Student B face student A and repeat what student A says.

- Continue speaking and repeating back and forth until you

finish the first slide

- Then you will see the Q/A slide. Student A read the questions.

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 - Student B answers the questions.

- Continue until you finish all questions.

The Fisher Man and his Flute

Part 1

Once upon a time, there lived a fisherman. Now this fisherman had a talent with music.
He was extremely skilled with his flute. This man was extremely well-known. So, one
day he decided to use his brilliant skills to catch fish. “It would be good if I could use my
skills to catch fish. In this manner, I could enjoy playing my flute and also catch the fish.”

Questions:

1. Who is the main character of the story?

2. What is main character’s talent?

3. What did the character decide to do to catch the fish?

Part 2

So, he took his flute and went to the seashore. There he put out the net in the sea. Then he
found a protruding rock to stand on. Once he became comfortable in his spot, he started
playing his flute. The melodious sound of his flute filled the air and the man enjoyed
himself thoroughly. “The melodious tune will attract the fishes to my net. And I’ll make
good money out of them. The fishes would dance into the net after hearing this tune,” he
thought.

Questions:

1. What did the character do to set up for his fish catching?

2. What did the character think about his plan?

Part 3

Unfortunately, nothing of that sort happened. When the man stopped and checked his net,
he found that none of the fishes had come. This upset him greatly. In the end, he decided
to throw in the net in the old fashion way. To his surprise, he managed to catch a huge
haul. “After trying with the flute and waiting, I finally catch some fish!” When the

128
fisherman looked closely he found the fishes jumping around in the net, as if they were
dancing.

Questions:

1. What was the result of the fisherman’ plan?

2. What did he do to fix the problems?

Part 4

“Oh, my dear fish,” he said to them. “When I played for you, none of you jumped into the
net. And now that I am not playing, you dance around?” That’s when he realized that the
when he played the flute the fishes had not come to the net. And the ones that had, even
they had left out of the net. So, he realized certain things were meant to be done in a
certain way.

Questions:

1. What did the fisherman conclude about his plan?

2. What is the moral value of the story?

Task 5

Learn the meaning of the following words. Then, try to pronounce them.

No Word Transcript Meaning

1 tempest /ˈtem.pɪst/ a violent storm

2 torrents /ˈtɔːr.ənt/ a sudden large or too large amount,

especially one that seems to be
uncontrolled

3 trickle down /ˌtrɪk.əlˈdaʊn/ used to refer to a situation in which

something that starts in the high parts of a
system spreads to the whole of the system

4 clung /klʌŋ/ past simple and past participle of cling:

to stick onto or hold something or

someone tightly, or to refuse to stop

129
 holding it, him, or her

5 mattress /ˈmæt.rəs/ he part of a bed, made of a strong cloth

cover filled with firm material, that makes
the bed comfortable to lie on

6 scarcely /ˈskeəs.li/ almost not

7 plain /pleɪn/ not decorated in any way; with nothing

added

Task 6

In group of four, a member of each group has to memorize a part of story in two minutes.
The members return to the groups and dictate the information to the other members. The
action is repeated until each member gets the turn.

The Princess and The Pea

There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she must be a
real Princess. He travelled all over the world in hopes of finding such a lady; but there
was always something wrong. Princesses he found in plenty; but whether they were real
Princesses it was impossible for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed
to him not quite right about the ladies. At last he returned to his palace quite cast down,
because he wished so much to have a real Princess for his wife.

One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and lightened, and the rain
poured down from the sky in torrents: besides, it was as dark as pitch. All at once there
was heard a violent knocking at the door, and the Queen, the Prince’s mother, went out
herself to open it. It was a Princess who was standing outside the door. What with the rain
and the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from her hair, and her
clothes clung to her body. She said she was a real Princess.

“Ah! we shall soon see that!” thought the old Queen-mother; however, she said
not a word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the bedroom, took all the
bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas on the bedstead. She then laid twenty

130
mattresses one upon another over the three peas, and put twenty feather beds over the
mattresses. Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night. The next morning she was
asked how she had slept. “Oh, very badly indeed!” she replied. “I have scarcely closed
my eyes the whole night through. I do not know what was in my bed, but I had something
hard under me, and am all over black and blue. It has hurt me so much!”

Now it was plain that the lady must be a real Princess, since she had been able to
feel the three little peas through the twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. None but
a real Princess could have had such a delicate sense of feeling. The Prince accordingly
made her his wife; being now convinced that he had found a real Princess. The three peas
were however put into the cabinet of curiosities, where they are still to be seen, provided
they are not lost. Wasn’t this a lady of real delicacy?

131
 APPENDIX I
Students’ Speaking Scores
---------------------------------------------

The Students’ Speaking Score in the Pre-Test

Students’ Rater 1 Rater 2

TS TS Mean
Number F A V F A V
S1 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 3.5
S2 2 2 2 6 2 3 2 7 6.5
S3 1 1 1 3 2 2 1 5 4
S4 1 2 1 4 1 1 2 4 4
S5 1 2 2 5 1 2 1 4 4.5
S6 2 2 2 6 1 2 2 5 5.5
S7 1 1 1 3 2 2 2 6 4.5
S8 1 1 2 4 2 2 2 6 5
S9 1 1 1 3 2 1 1 4 3.5
S10 1 2 1 4 1 1 2 4 4
S11 2 1 2 5 1 1 2 4 4.5
S12 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 3.5
S13 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 3 3.5
S14 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 3
S15 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 3 3.5
S16 1 2 1 4 1 1 1 3 3.5
S17 1 1 1 3 2 2 1 5 4
S18 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 3
S19 1 1 1 3 2 2 1 5 4
S20 1 2 1 4 1 1 1 3 3.5
S21 1 2 2 5 1 1 1 3 4
S22 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 3
S23 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 3
S24 1 1 2 4 2 2 2 6 5
S25 2 1 2 5 2 2 2 6 5.5
S26 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 3 3.5
S27 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 3 3.5
S28 1 2 1 4 2 1 2 5 4.5
S29 1 1 1 3 2 2 2 6 4.5
S30 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 3
Mean 1.17 1.3 1.37 3.83 1.3 1.4 1.4 4.2

132
 The Students’ Speaking Score in the Progress Test

Students’ Rater 1 Rater 2

TS TS Mean
Number F A V F A V
S1 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S2 3 3 3 9 3 2 2 7 8
S3 2 2 3 7 2 3 3 8 7.5
S4 3 2 2 7 2 2 2 6 6.5
S5 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S6 2 2 2 6 2 2 3 7 6.5
S7 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S8 3 3 3 9 2 2 2 6 7.5
S9 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S10 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S11 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S12 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S13 2 2 2 6 3 2 2 7 6.5
S14 3 2 2 7 2 2 2 6 6.5
S15 2 2 3 7 2 2 2 6 6.5
S16 2 2 2 6 2 2 3 7 6.5
S17 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S18 2 2 2 6 3 2 2 7 6.5
S19 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S20 2 2 2 6 3 2 2 7 6.5
S21 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S22 2 2 2 6 3 2 1 6 6
S23 2 2 1 5 3 2 3 8 6.5
S24 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S25 2 2 2 6 3 2 2 7 6.5
S26 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S27 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 6 6
S28 2 2 2 6 3 3 3 9 7.5
S29 3 2 2 7 2 2 2 6 6.5
S30 3 2 3 8 2 3 3 8 8
Mean 2.2 2.07 2.1 6.4 2.27 2.1 2.17 6.53

133
 The Students’ Speaking Score in the Post-test

Students’ Rater 1 Rater 2

TS TS Mean
Number F A V F A V
S1 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S2 4 3 3 10 4 3 3 10 10
S3 3 3 4 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S4 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S5 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S6 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S7 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S8 4 3 3 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S9 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S10 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S11 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S12 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S13 3 3 3 9 4 3 3 10 9.5
S14 4 3 3 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S15 3 3 4 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S16 3 3 3 9 3 3 4 10 9.5
S17 3 3 4 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S18 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S19 3 4 3 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S20 3 3 3 9 4 3 3 10 9.5
S21 3 3 4 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S22 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S23 3 3 3 9 4 3 3 10 9.5
S24 4 3 3 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
S25 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S26 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S27 3 3 2 8 3 3 3 9 8.5
S28 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S29 3 3 3 9 3 3 3 9 9
S30 3 3 4 10 3 3 3 9 9.5
Mean 3.13 3.03 3.13 9.3 3.13 3 3.03 9.17

Rater 1 : The researcher

Rater 2 : The collaborator

134
 APPENDIX J
The Attendance List

No Name Female Meeting

Male 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 Phạm Thị Vân Anh M x     

2 Trần Thị Vân Anh M      

3 Mai Văn Đại F      

4 Bùi Thị Ngọc Diễm M      

5 Phạm Thùy Dung M      

6 Trần Thị Thuỳ Dung M      

7 Nguyễn Tùng Dương F      

8 Đinh Khắc Duy F      

9 Đỗ Đức Hải F      

10 Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng M   x   

11 Phạm Thị Thu Hoài M      

12 Nguyễn Ngọc Minh Hoàng F      

13 Cao Thị Nhật Hồng M      

14 Lê Thị Hồng M      

15 Nguyễn Thị Thu Hường M      

16 Hoàng Mai Lệ Huyền M      

17 Vũ Thị Huyền M      

18 Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Lan M      

135
 19 Vũ Thị Linh M      

20 Mạc Như Lộc F      

21 Nguyễn Hải Long F x     

22 Nguyễn Thị Hồng Minh M      

23 Tô Thị Bích Ngọc M      

24 Vũ Thị Kim Oanh M      

25 Nguyễn Thị Như Quỳnh M      

26 Vũ Quốc Tích F      

27 Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang M      

28 Nguyễn Thanh Tùng F      

29 Dương Thị Thu Uyên M      

30 Lê Thị Thúy Vân M      

*) 
= attended
*) x = absent

136
 APPENDIX K
Tests
---------------------------------------------

PRE-TEST

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 1

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 1 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề.

Topic

Introduction about yourself

You are expected to ask and answer questions in 3 minutes about of the following
aspects:

full name, date of birth, place of birth, daily routines…

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LÀN 1

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 2 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời

Topic

Your family

You are expected to ask and answer questions in 3 minutes about of the following
aspects:

number of family members, their jobs, the arrangement of housework the favorite
family activities, the way you were raised…

137
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 1
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 3 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời

Topic

Your house

You are expected to ask and answer questions in 3 minutes about of the following
aspects:

kind of accommodation, location (city/suburb/countryside), number of rooms, favorite

room(s), likes and dislikes about the house

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 1

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 4 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời

Topic

Your hobbies

You are expected to ask and answer questions in 3 minutes about of the following
aspects:

favorite leisure activities, colors, foods, drinks, clothes…

138
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 1
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 5 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời

Topic

School

You are expected to ask and answer questions in 3 minutes about of the following
aspects:

school activities, favorite subjects, challenging subjects, classmates…

PROGRESS TESTS

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 1 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

139
Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 2 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.
Student A

Student B

140
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 3 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.
Student A

Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 4 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

Student B

141
 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2
KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 5 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

Student B

POST TEST

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 3

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 1 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

142
 Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 2 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

143
 Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói

Đề số 3 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

144
 Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 4 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 5 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.
Student A

145
 Student B

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG ĐỀ KIỂM TRA LẦN 2

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ
HỌC PHẦN: Tiếng Anh 2 - Nói
Đề số 6 Dành cho: Lớp ĐHNN ANH 5 – K17
Thời gian chuẩn bị: 5 phút, không kể thời gian phát đề. Thời
Both of you have 3 minutes to tell the story illustrated by these numbered pictures
below in such a way that you in turn speak about your numbered pictures in order
to create the logical story.

Student A

Student B

146
 APPENDIX L
Photographs
------------------

Picture 1 + 2: Researcher delivers vocabulary handouts and explains the

pronunciation/definition

Picture 3 + 4: Researcher shows pictures of fairy-tales and asks students to tell

these tales’ name

147
148
Picture 5 - 11: Students are doing pair-work and researcher is walking around to
monitor the activity

149
Picture 12 – 16: Students are doing group-work and researcher is walking around
to monitor the activity

150
Picture 17 – Another pair-work activity using slide-show with the help of
collaborator

151