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- Hochiminh City – 2019
……………………………………..
GRADUATION THESIS
Major
English Language
Topic
How to make pupils at SIU interested in
learning English speaking
Instructor
Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA
Student
Dinh Thai Son
ID: 97011501057
- DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the work entitled "THE THESIS PROPOSAL" submitted for the
school governor of The Saigon International University (SIU) is my original work and I
also confirm that, the report is only prepared for my academic requirement not for any
other purpose.
Student's name : Đinh Thái Sơn
Course : SIUBFT0815
Student ID : 97011501057
Date : September 6th, 2017
Place : Hochiminh city
Signature of the Student:
- ABSTRACT
The experience of English teaching, especially speaking class, comes from the actual
classroom and that is not a good news for a new teacher, who does not have it but
urgently needs to acquire the basic knowledge. This writing provides the reasons why the
level of interesting acts as a crucial point in the succeeding of a class. Furthermore, some
methods of teaching speaking are going to be viewed and discussed to strengthen the
point of view that intrinsic motivation should be applied in the class. Readers will find
graphs and figures demonstrating the subject and result in finding them useful for further
studies at the Saigon International University.
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to show deep gratitude to all those who gave me a chance to complete this
research and this Thesis.
A special thanks I would like to give to my instructor, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan, for
helping me with the information needed for my Thesis. Over the period of 10 weeks, he
helped us to schedule the writing from step to step so that the writing could be handed in
time. Professor also guided us the correct form of writing and corrected our paper works.
Furthermore, I would like to thank the class 15DTA, who act as a helpful source of data
on reflecting the state of our speaking class in the pass. The data was rapidly filled and
the reply was so frank. Without their participation, this writing was so much in trouble.
Last but not least, I would like to thank the Saigon International University. The
academic facility provides me a chance to be able to present the knowledge that I had
learned here for the last four years and applied them to real life situation.
- Instructor’s Comment
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Instructor: …………………………….
- Signed: …………………………………...
TABLE OF CONTENT
Content
- LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: The chart describing the level of interest the speaking class could get based on
students’ grading 20
Chart 2: The chart describing the amount of activities were use......................................21
Chart 3: The chart describing the most common method used during class........................
22
Chart 4: Chart describing which methods students prefer................................................29
Chart 5: Chart describing which taskbased activities students prefer.............................30
Chart 6: Chart describing which topicbased activities students prefer.......................32
- 9Student: Dinh Thai Son Student ID:97011501057
CONTENT
Chapter 1: Introduction
The research began when the class of speaking conducted at SIU had finished since
the majority felt the same that the class either quite reluctant or not being able to
distribute the enthusiastic activities. In the search for methods to better the class learning
environment, the hope is that speaking class will be more communicative for students to
enjoy.
1. Rationale
English has always been unofficially considered to be the most used language of the
modern time for it has proved it significant in global business and communication in the
last decade. Yet, learning a second language is not as easy as it seems especially when it
comes to speaking English. During speaking session, we found that some of the students
lack the motivation to stand up in front the class and deliver a speech in English. This
typical situation is often assigned to being shy, reserved and insecure of making mistake,
some cases event engage with the negative attitude toward speaking in front of public.
Such matter has raised the attention of us as future teachers to find an appropriate
solution.
2. Purposes of the Study
As stated before, we are aiming at creating an efficient English speaking period for
students of Saigon International University. By attending the classes, we noticed that
getting students to speak English in class is quite tricky especially to those who were
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
- 10Student: Dinh Thai Son Student
ID:97011501057
reluctant to speak or express themselves in front of other people. Since then, we have
been scanning through methods of teaching Speaking English and obtaining more new
modern practices to help students deal with speaking problems.
3. Significance of the Study
As the first to benefit from this research, we would say that through the process of
making this writing possible, we have learned a quite amount of ways to conduct an
effective speaking class. With a certain belief that the students at Saigon International
University would be the next target to gain advantage since this research was aimed to
better the class of speaking based on the interest of each individuals. Lastly, teachers’
role is quite important in the learning and progressing of pupils so we hope that this small
research could act as a support to those seeking of such helps and shall gain benefit from
it.
4. Research Questions
When the target has been set, three main questions are going to be discussed in the
later section of this research.
1. Should we consider to improve the Speaking class so that it could be more
enthusiastic?
2. What activities of English speaking teaching are going to fit into the class to make
it more enthusiastic?
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
- 11Student: Dinh Thai Son Student
ID:97011501057
3. Which methods are considered to be the most suitable for the students at Saigon
International University?
5. Limitation
Since the research was only carrying on for ten weeks, there were a quite shortage of
time. As a result, the amount of material we were able to collect still constrained. Further
to that, the preparation for this thesis was interfered by the time using for completing
internship report. Two weeks were cut out to complete the tasks. The questionnaire
period was yet too short, the answers collecting stopped after a week so that amount of
responses was not enough as a whole class.
6. Scope of the Study
This topic focused on the student at Saigon International University:
The Saigon International University (SIU) is an international university,
founded in Vietnam to help Vietnamese and foreign students advance their
education to the tertiary level. All our programs are taught either in English or
in Vietnamese based on the standard of the American university curriculum.
The SIU degrees are valuable nationally and internationally. (siu.edu.vn)
The class of 15DTA of English Language faculty started in 2015 and will end in 2019.
The curriculum consisted of Vietnamese program including subjects such as Introduction
to Linguistics, Semantics, etc. and English program which were the skills of Reading,
Writing, Speaking and Listening.
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
- 12Student: Dinh Thai Son Student
ID:97011501057
The research targeted the students attended the class of 15DTA of the faculty of
English Language at Saigon International University only. The list of students we used is
the LIST OF STUDENTS GRADUATION INTERNSHIP 2019 sent to us by the school
office on February 27th, 2019 which contained 25 members in total.
In conclusion, the main target for this research are students at SIU in general, for
the students of class 15DTA in specific. Although, there some difficulties in reaching for
the sample, we were managed to acquire the result needed for this thesis.
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
- 13Student: Dinh Thai Son Student
ID:97011501057
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Harmer (2007) in his fourth edition of “The Practice of English
Language Teaching”, speaking can be quite easy to practice especially in a class where
students are acquainted to each other and archive an appropriate level of English learning.
On the other hand, Harmer also stated that it is a challenge job for teachers to handle a
class with a variety of mixed level or students who are little exposed to English in their
previous learning. These reluctant students are described as often being shy and refusing
to express themselves in front of the crowd because of the fear of not speaking normal
English. In addition, a more common problem comes to Speaking class is “I cannot think
of anything to say”. This issue is usually assigned to not being able to relate students
themselves to the topics or activities happening during the class. Last but not least,
speaking class should have a high number of individual participants because unlike other
skills, speaking need great amount of time in order for learners to expose themselves to
the language.
To have a better view of some of the matter we were working on, the below terms and
definitions are going to be discussed.
As we would all agree on, “To be motivated means to be moved to do something. A
person who feels no impetus or inspiration to act is thus characterized as unmotivated,
whereas someone who is energized or activated toward an end is considered motivated”
as Richard, M, R. & Edward, L, Deci. (2000) described. Therefore, we would like to
classify two types of motivation that keep learner at their stage of studying.
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
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ID:97011501057
1. Intrinsic motivation
The writing of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New
Directions stated:
Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent
satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence. When
intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge
entailed rather than because of external products, pressures or reward.
(Ryan & Deci, 2000, pp. 56)
Furthermore Vanderbilt University in its article had suggested these intrinsic
motivators could be describe as those who show interest at a specific subject with the
thought of it somehow connect to the reality and when come to solving problems they
can easily apply. More specific, when asked the question of how efficient you are when
learning a subject or what archive do you earn when learning. The responses might sound
like these, ““Literature interests me.”, “Learning math enables me to think clearly.”, “I feel good
when I succeed in class.” ” (Article about Motivating Student, Vanderbilt University).
2. Distinguish Types of Motivations
A much tougher task is how to tell the differences between intrinsic, extrinsic and
internal, external motivation. Being as briefly as possible, external motivation regards the
outer forces that drive learners to their success while internal motivation is more likely to
fulfill personal satisfaction. Let us have an example. A student completed his homework
with the fear of being punished by his parents if the work had not been done. In this case,
he is motivated by his parents’ sanctions so it is obvious external. The same student
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
- 15Student: Dinh Thai Son Student
ID:97011501057
complete his work because he thinks that it will lead to his succeed at school, then he is
internally motivated. As comparing to the other two, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are
much more of an instrumentally value. The boy could have finished his homework since
his discovery that his homework contain knowledge that he needed to perform in other
subject, then he is intrinsically motivated. On the other hand, the child completing his
task thinking that he it would help him to earn a job or in short term get a reward in the
future could be considered as extrinsically motivated.
Since we are only mentioning the intrinsic motivation, the distinguish part above just
to clarify these definition. It is, however, important for teachers to recognize these types
of motivation and be able to classify reluctant students to fit in each type and make sure
to plan ahead a solution to deal with each type.
3. Advantages of Intrinsic Motivation
The process of acquiring information on students’ liking as well as further developing
them can easily accompany class time meaning that steps can happen at the same time
without interfering or suppressing one another. For instant, during speaking class,
teachers can ask students to provide their hobby or ask question about their future jobs,
etc. As far as we acknowledged, extrinsically motivating methods do their jobs as soon as
you apply them during your teaching section. Rewards and good marks draw the
attentions of students, hands are up for answering questions and speaking of ideas. It
provides strong stimulation and makes students eagerly to aim for rewards.
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
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ID:97011501057
4. Some Elements of English Speaking
As Harmer defined, speaking English fluently means there is a full potential
deployment on pronouncing phonemes, using stress and intonation patterns and creating a
connected speech. Furthermore, these above criteria must also accompany with various
speaking events. Speaking in another language is difficult and it has been argued that an
important reason for this is that a student’s attentional resources during a speaking
activity are limited (Skehan, 1998: 73). Many students cannot stay balance between
getting the meaning right in a proper time (fluency) and using it correctly (accuracy) as
an article of Cambridge Press had suggested.
5. Communicative Language Teaching
In the work of Littlewood (2013), the communicative ability is described by analyzing
two different points of view of language, the structural and the functional. Structural
point of view considers the aspect of grammar, in other words, two sentences can be
distinguished from each other by their grammatical structure. For instant, “John is
drinking coffee” and “The coffee is being drunk by John”. The structural view alone,
however, cannot be used as a way of conveying communication. Learners will need the
view of functional as well. Here is an example: “Are they still working?” .In the aspect of
grammar, the sentence should be understand as a question or interrogative. However,
there are more than one meaning in the view of functional base on the circumstances that
the speakers in. As a result, the communicative language teaching was there to solve the
problem in three aspects: getting students to understand the linguistic structure first since
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
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ID:97011501057
this is ESL class, helping students to use the language communicatively and also
introducing students to a nonlinguistic knowledge of communication.
6. Taskbased activities and Topicbased activities
As Ur defined in her work, a topicbased activity helps students to relate the ideas of
students to their own experience and knowledge. This kind of activities could also
represent a group discussion where teachers can stimulate speeches but not too many
arguments so that students can keep their origin ideas. On the other hand, taskbased
activities require groups or pairs to complete observable tasks such as records, lists,
charts, etc. The main difference between these types of activities is the outcome. While
topicbased activities aim to produce discussion or such type of outcome, taskbased
activities provides a more specific result, a source of material that could also be used for
other subjects. Therefore, taskbased activities seem to produce more speech than its
company since the procedures of conducting a taskbased activities already creates
opportunities for students to talk, especially to communicate with one another.
In this research, topicbased activities would be widened as a method of conducting
speaking class using a topic as a center to construct an activity.
7. Some Classroom Speaking Activities
7.1. Script Acting
This activity involve in having student to act a cutout part of a story from their books
or other sources that they have most interest, the progress can be recorded and act as an
evaluation for grading. These scripts should be selected carefully so that it could fit the
age of the class and students should be asked to look through the script as if they were
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
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ID:97011501057
“real” actors and actresses. Students will have time to practice their performance which
teacher head them toward the stress and intonation as they are speaking the lines. Not
only student will be able to practice speaking with their friend during prepare section but
they also gain confident during acting section in front of the class. During acting out part,
teachers should give students with less confident chances to look at their classmate and
create a helpful friendly environment where they help each other with the pronunciations
and acting.
7.2. Discussion
The most common of this type of interactions between teachers and students is what
Jeremy described as Buzz group. This activity involves in predicting a topic name after
you have exposed it to the students or discussing after naming some key words of that
same topic. For example, teachers show pictures of snake, elephant, tiger, etc. and
suggest that we might discuss the topic of animals in the rain forest and ask them to name
the animals. Then teachers ask them to guess where they could live or capable of, “the
elephant can swim”; “The snake cannot fly”, etc. The buzz group method, however,
should be discriminated from Instant comment, which have more connection to producing
fast corresponding inclass activities. Let take the same lesson of the rain forest for
example. Teachers again show the topic but now instead of involving the class into
speaking, we can invite individuals to stand up and list as quickly as possible four animal
and their living habitats. Another type of discussion is the Formal debates. Students
during the class should be given a topic then plan their arguments in group while teachers
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
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ID:97011501057
direct them toward some point of view or answer their questions. It is important for the
student to practice their speech in advance in their group first.
7.3. Prepared Talks
This activity is often seen in the secondary grade classes where they acquired a quite
amount of vocabulary and the ability to use formal conversation. Students then choose a
topic that they most acquainted and prepared the talk in advance. Teachers should
encourage students to present their ideas using notes instead of scripts and should speak
in a small group first. Then teacher could grade them on a criteria that the whole class
had agreed on before.
As the most used activity in teaching English speaking, prepared talks are suitable for
both intrinsic students. It can assure that the topics chosen by students are those familiar
or interesting so they can have as much information as possible along with vocabulary
needed to make their presentation. The criteria that teachers introduce will act as grading
tools to see if students could get better in speaking English.
7.4. Questionnaires
As Harmer (2007) mentioned, “Questionnaires are useful because, by being preplanned,
they ensure that both questioner and respondent have something to say to each other”. This
activity is what we called “flexible” to conduct and here are the reasons. Questionnaires
can be delivered to students by teachers or can be done by students themselves. Provided
that questions are came up by teachers, students then discuss answers with friends or
practice oneonone conversation with teachers. On the other hand, students design the
materials themselves so that they could collect data from their friends and present their
finding in front of the class. In this case, teachers’ role is crucial in helping them in the
design process.
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
- 20Student: Dinh Thai Son Student
ID:97011501057
7.5. Simulation and roleplay
It is described as the act of students “simulate a reallife encounter (such as a
business meeting, an interview or a conversation in an aeroplane cabin, a hotel foyer, a
shop or a cafeteria) as if they were doing do in the real world” (The Practice of English
Language Teaching, 2015, pp. 352). Also described by Ur in her “A Course in English
Teaching Language” (p. 123), this activity can also begin with role cards distributed to
students about a situation. This simulation can also be students themselves take on the
roleplay of a character. It is important that the role of students should be given with full
instruction of background, characteristic, etc. Sometimes, teachers can have students to
improvise a circumstance of real life encounter.
In other words, to understand the matter thoroughly, teacher should be aimed with the
basis for professional look through books, articles and most importantly through
experience. The above provides information for such need.
Instructor: Nguyen Thanh Tuan, MA.
nguon tai.lieu . vn
