STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I declare that my thesis entitles: “Applying role-play in increasing student’ interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung high school” is the result of my own work, submitted in the fulfillment for the requirements of the B.A degree Except where the reference is indicated, no others person's work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis The author Le Dinh Mai Thao i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of carrying out the study, I have received a large amount of contribution and support from many people First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Ngo Ai Tuong, for her enthusiastic and useful guidance, insightful comments, and encouragement without which my thesis would not have been completed Second, my special thanks go to all of the teachers in Foreign Language Department who provided me with necessary help as well as good suggestion whenever I got into trouble Next, I am grateful to the teachers of English, who answered my questionnaire and interviewing questions, especially, Ms Trinh Thi Hong Cam and Mr Vo Minh Trung, who allowed me to carry out my observation and the students at Lai Vung High school for what they have done to help me finish the thesis Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my family, my friend and so many others who have given me constant support and love during the completion of the study Le Dinh Mai Thao ii ABSTRACT Using role-play activity is an effective way that helps to increase students' interest in learning speaking When applying role-play, students are set into an interesting talking environment, therefore, they can be activated to talk as more as possible The study about applying role-play in increasing students' interest in learning speaking is carried out to identify how students interest in learning speaking as well as role-play activity Data used for analysis in this study is mainly collected through survey questionnaires, through observation of two classes whose teachers have applied this activity and through direct interviewing One of the prominent results from data analysis is that students at Lai Vung High school really interest in learning speaking whenever applying role-play The usefulness and difficulties of applying this activity are mentioned in this thesis Some solutions for overcoming these difficulties are also suggested iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation for the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research methods 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Previous related studies .2 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Teaching and learning English speaking skill 2.1.1 Communicative language teaching approach – an effective language teaching method 2.1.1.1 Definition of communicative language teaching approach .4 2.1.1.2 The goal of communicative language teaching approach 2.1.2 The way of learning English speaking effectively 2.2 Role-play in teaching speaking .6 2.2.1 Definition of role-play 2.2.2 The steps for role-play activity 2.2.3 The significance of role-play in teaching speaking 10 2.2.4 The teacher‟role in this activity 10 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 12 3.1 Research questions: .12 3.2 Research participants 12 3.2.1 The researcher 12 iv 3.2.2 The subjects 12 3.3 Research procedure 12 3.4 Data collection instruments .12 3.4.1 Survey questionnaires 13 3.4.2 Observations 13 3.4.3 Interview 14 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 16 4.1 Results analysis 16 4.1.1 Questionnaires .16 4.1.1.1 Questionnaire for students 16 4.1.1.2 Teacher questionnaire .31 4.1.2 Interviewing 41 4.1.2.1 Teachers' interviewing 41 4.1.2.2 Students' interviewing .42 4.1.3 Observation 43 4.1.3.1 The first observed class 43 4.1.3.2 The second observed class 44 4.2 Discussion 46 4.2.1 Research question 1: What attitude teachers and students have toward learning speaking English and role-play activities? 46 4.2.1.1 Students' attitude toward learning speaking English 46 4.2.1.2 Teachers and students' attitude toward role-play activities .46 4.2.2 Research question 2: What are the effectiveness and difficulties of applying role-play? 47 4.2.2.1 The effectiveness of applying role-play .47 4.2.2.2 The difficulties of applying role-play 47 4.2.3 Research question 3: What should be done to overcome the difficulties of applying role-play? 48 4.2.3.1 The advices for teachers .48 4.2.3.2 The advices for students 48 v CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION .50 5.1 Overview of the thesis 50 5.2 Limitations of the thesis .50 5.3 Suggestions for further research .51 REFERENCES I APPENDIX III QUESTIONNAIRE III APPENDIX V BẢNG CÂU HỎI V APPENDIX IX OBSERVATION SHEET IX vi LIST OF TABLES Tables of students'questionnaire analysis Table 1: Students' attitude about speaking English 16 Table 2: Students' thought about learning speaking .17 Table 3: Students' speaking ability 18 Table 4: The frequencies of teachers' applying role-play .19 Table 5: Students' thought about the way that teachers apply role-play 20 Table 6: Students' thought about role-play activities 21 Table 7: Students' opinion about the profit of participating in role-play .22 Table 8: Students' benefits when participating in role-play activities 23 Table 9: Students' interest in their role 24 Table 10: Students' advantages when participating in role-play activities .25 Table 11: Student's difficulties when participating in role-play activities .26 Table 12: The students' preferences about the topics of role-play activities 27 Table 13: Students' opinions about their teacher's instruction 28 Table 14: The increasing of students' interest in learning speaking 29 Table 15: The improvement of students' speaking ability 30 Tables of teachers'questionnaire analysis Table 1:Teachers' opinion about their students' attitude about learning speaking 31 Table 2: Teachers‟ opinion about their students' speaking ability 32 Table 3: Teachers have applied role-play activities 33 Table 4: Teachers‟ opinion about applying role-play in increasing students' interest in learning speaking 34 Table 5: The usefulness of role-play activities .35 Table 6: Teachers' frequency of applying role-play activities 36 Table 7: Teachers' opinion about whether applying role-play is difficult or not 37 Table 8: Teachers' difficulties when applying role-play activities 38 Table 9: Teachers' thought about the increasing of their students' interest in learning speaking 39 Table 10: Teachers' opinion about their students' speaking ability improvement 40 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figures of students' questionnaire analysis Figure 1:Students' attitude about speaking English .16 Figure 2:Students' thought about learning speaking 17 Figure 3: Students' speaking ability .18 Figure 4: The frequencies of teachers' applying role-play .19 Figure 5: Students' thought about the way that teachers apply role-play 20 Figure 6: Students' thought about role-play activities 21 Figure 7: Students' opinion about the profit of participating in role-play 22 Figure 8: Students' benefits when participating in role-play activities 23 Figure 9: Students' interest in their role 24 Figure 10: Students' advantages when participating in role-play activities 25 Figure 11: Student's difficulties when participating in role-play activities 26 Figure 12: The students' preferences about the topics of role-play activities 27 Figure 13: Students' opinions about their teacher's instruction .28 Figure 14: The increasing of students' interest in learning speaking 29 Figure 15: The improvement of students' speaking ability 30 Figures of teachers' questionnaire analysis Figure 1: Teachers' opinion about their students' attitude about learning speaking .31 Figure 2: Teachers‟ opinion about their students' speaking ability 32 Figure 3: Teachers have applied role-play activities .33 Figure 4: Teachers‟ opinion about applying role-play in increasing students' interest in learning speaking 34 Figure 5: The usefulness of role-play activities .35 Figure 6: Teachers' frequency of applying role-play activities 36 Figure 7: Teachers' opinion about whether applying role-play is difficult or not 37 Figure 8: Teachers' difficulties when applying role-play activities 38 Figure 9:Teachers' thought about the increasing of their students' interest in learning speaking 39 Figure 10: Teachers' opinion about their students' speaking ability improvement 40 viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces some very first parts of the thesis; there are seven parts in this chapter: (1) motivation for the study; (2) aims of the study; (3) research methods; (4) scope of the study; (5) significance of the study; (6) previous related studies and (7) organization of the study 1.1 Motivation for the study Speaking skill is one of important parts of learning English Everyone who learns English always want to use this skill as well as they can Speaking English fluently is the key that lets people can be easier to communicate with foreigners, accept the advance of technology and get success However, sometimes, speaking is also the obstacle that obstructs them to reach to their aims In fact, a lot of learners study English grammar very well, but they cannot master it just because they get difficulties in their speaking This problem leads to disheartenment for learners so they lose their interest in learning speaking In Vietnam, especially in many countryside schools, speaking skill usually is neglected Teachers spend almost all class time for teaching grammar; therefore, students lack the chances to practice speaking (Nguyen Quoc Hung, M.A) In others case, speaking classes are the time for learning by heart dialogs or practicing repetition of drills Students cannot cavalier this drills in their real conversations The result is more and more students lose their belief in their ability of speaking English To improve student‟s communicative skills, increasing student‟s interest in speaking is very useful The more interesting atmosphere the teachers create the more effectiveness in oral skills the students get Role- play activity is one of the best ways that can help teachers carry out this Since teachers apply role- play activities in class, students are activated because they are set into an interesting speaking environment For these reasons above, the researcher decide to carry out the thesis “Applying role-play in increasing student‟ interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung high school” Through this thesis, researcher hope that it helps high school teachers realize the usefulness of role-play activity as well as suggest some solutions to increase the effectiveness of this activity in speaking class 1.2 Aims of the study The thesis aims to identify how students interest in learning speaking The thesis, in addition, aims to find out the effect of using role-play in speaking classes Also, it is intended to find out difficulties from using role-play activities so that the researcher can suggest some solutions to these difficulties 1.3 Research methods During studying process, there are three research methods which are going to collect valuable data and information: questionnaires, observation and interview Firstly, the questionnaires are employed In order to collect the data, two types of questionnaires are designed: one in English and the other in Vietnamese The English questionnaire is delivered to four teachers, who teach in grade 11 and the Vietnamese one is used for students Collected data will be analyzed to realize how role-play is applied and the effect of using role-play in class Next, personal observations are also carried out in some classes, which role-play is applied to observe teachers and students' role-play activities Furthermore, interview is use to find out teachers and students difficulties from using role-play 1.4 Scope of the study The scope of study is about applying role-play in increasing students' interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung high school 1.5 Significance of the study Hopefully, the findings of the study may make a contribution to increase interest in learning speaking English for student toward applying role-play activities The thesis also may help to find out what are the difficulties when teacher applying role-play Furthermore, it may not only help to find out the difficulties when teacher applying role-play but also will give some suggestions to help teachers over come these difficulties 1.6 Previous related studies activities while someone (17%) dislike it As mentioned above, students aware the importance of speaking skill, however, they not have more opportunities for practicing Applying role-play is an ideal chance satisfying this students' need They interest in the exciting learning atmosphere created by role-play Similarly, teachers also think that using role-play is very helpful in increasing students‟ interest in learning speaking 4.2.2 Research question 2: What are the effectiveness and difficulties of applying role-play? 4.2.2.1 The effectiveness of applying role-play In general speaking, the prominent effectiveness of role-play is showed on the increasing of students‟ interest in learning speaking The finding of the thesis confirm that students like role-play activities so they feel the lesson will be more exciting every when applying this activity Furthermore, most of students stated that in English classes, they rarely participate in communicative activities like role-play so role-play gives students an opportunity to practice speaking, especially, speaking in front of many people In the case of learning to use language in a more realistic and more practical way as in role-play activity, students can improve their speaking ability rapidly Role play encourages the use of critical thinking because it involves analyzing and problem solving; therefore role play is a cognitive learning method 4.2.2.2 The difficulties of applying role-play Even though the effectiveness of role-play, applying it may get some difficulties First of all, lacking of vocabulary barrier students reach to success in role-play In their roles, students sometimes can not know which words should they use and the result is their characters failed Students' speaking ability is another problem Speaking skill is one of neglected parts so, in fact, students' speaking ability is just at average level The next difficulty is related to students‟ confidence Just a small number of students can speak English in public confidently while most of them can not This weak point reduces students' interest in participating role-play activity Besides that, teachers also get difficulties in their controlling of the activity Some students not concentrate on 47 the activity, they just think about what happened out side the class so the teachers can not involve all of students in this activity 4.2.3 Research question 3: What should be done to overcome the difficulties of applying role-play? 4.2.3.1 The advices for teachers To make role-play completely become an enjoyable activity, that contains nothing being difficult, the teachers, who carry out role-play should make their instructions or guidance clearer and clearer The more specific teacher's instructions given, the more easy acting out students got It will be better if teachers give some model sentences and model actions besides giving scenario and some useful language To involve all students in the activities, teachers should divide students' role appropriately with each student' speaking ability In order words, basing on students' speaking level, teachers give the role needing more expression by using words for students being good at speaking and vice versa Moreover, it is better when teachers give the role for all of the students in this class It makes students not have free time for the irrelevant work Giving more encourages and praises after the activities is also the useful advice for teachers to maintain and increase students interest in role-play activities It is not means that teachers just give nice comment on students‟ performance, correction on their mistake is helpful for students' speaking improvement To keep students interest in role-play, teachers also should diversify the topics Sometime applying the topics related to the textbook and sometime using the daily-life topics is better than just using one type of them 4.2.3.2 The advices for students As the finding results above, students get difficulties in their vocabulary using In the play, they not know the way of using words suitably They also lack vocabulary when acting out their characters Enhancing students' stock of vocabulary is the best way to improve this problem Students should change their new words learning method Instead of learning by heart vocabulary passively, it will be better if the words are acquired actively Students just have to remember at least one word per day However, this word should be learnt both in meaning and using To understand this 48 word in profound, a sentence containing this word is very helpful In addition, lacking of confidence in public speaking prevents students reach to success in role-play activities so improving students‟ confidence is the next advice for them Afraid of speaking in front of others can be improved by students themselves Training to become more confident is not easy; however, it is possible to implementation Day by day, reading out loud an English newspaper, practicing talking by English with their friends can be effective 49 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Overview of the thesis This part states the overall conclusion of the study on applying role-play in increasing students' interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung High school This study is to find out the effect of using role-play, the students and teacher's difficulties when apply this activity and suggests some solutions for these difficulties To serve for the purpose of the study, observation sheets, interview questions and questionnaires were employed to collect the necessary information The results of the research show that most eleventh grade teachers of English here have applied role-play activities in teaching They also admit of the usefulness of role-play Role-play can help students increase their confidence as well as their imagination and creativity Moreover, it can not only help students use English in natural way but also talk about daily- life topic that students are interested in In fact, both teachers and students conform that they get difficulties when using this activity The most crucial difficulty that teachers meet is students' speaking ability limitation That lead to the fact that they flinch to apply this activity often Meanwhile most of students get difficulties in their confidence and their vocabulary They seem to be hard to express their character in confident way However, during the observation, students display to be excited participating in role-play activities and their speaking interest also seem to be increased It can be concluded that communicative approach in general and role-play activities in particular should be often use in teaching English because of the effectiveness in increasing students' interest in learning speaking It is expected that role-play activity will be more helpful and will be applied more and more frequently 5.2 Limitations of the thesis The study contains some limitations that should be noted Firstly, because of limit of time, the researcher just can interview some teachers and students about applying roleplay activities, there are some other teachers and a lot of students can not have a chance to express their opinion; therefore, the results are not various Moreover, it is limitation at time of observing teachers' teaching There are just two periods of two classes were 50 observed so the scopes of the study is limited Next, the research needs to experiment in reality In other words, the researcher need to really teach some classes those applying role-play activities Finally, the study would be more profound if the researcher has perfectly good knowledge about role-play 5.3 Suggestions for further research Hopefully, the mentioned limitations will help other researchers have some useful experiences in their further related studies First of all, the researchers should enlarge the amount of research participants The more research participants' answers researchers collect the more reliable results they get, for example, further studies can involve more teachers and students in interview so that they can get more information about their research participants' attitude toward research object In addition, the effectiveness of role-play will be recognized easily if researchers spend much time on observing more lessons taught by high school teachers It is also better if further researchers have a chance for real teaching time that role-play is applied It is hoped that these suggestions will help further researchers have better experience for their studies In brief, though thesis contains certain limitations, it has been completed with greatest efforts, therefore, sympathetic comments and suggestions are highly appreciated 51 REFERENCES English references: [1] Paul Procter, (1995), Cambridge International Dictionary of English [2] Gillian Porter Ladousse, Role Play: Resources Book for Teacher Series [3] Joanna Budden, (2004), “Role Play” [4] Maria A Kodotchigova, (2001) Role-Play in Teaching Culture: Six Quick Steps for Classroom Implementation [5] Livingstone, (1983), Role Play in Language Learning [6] Nina Spada, (2007), Communicative Language Teaching: Currents Status and Future Prospect [7] W Littlewood, (1981), Communicative Language Teaching [8] Margie S Berns, (1984) Initiatives in Communicative Language Teaching A Book of Readings [9] Milroy, E (1982) Role-play: a practical guide Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press [10] Byram, M., & Fleming, M., (Eds.) (1998) Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [11] Savignon Sandra, 1983, Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice Texts and Contexts in Second Language Learning The Addison-Wesley Second Language Professional Library Serie Vietnamese reference: Mạch Bửu Hiền, (2004), Rèn luyện kỹ nói tiếng Anh học sinh khối lớp 10 trường THPT chuyên Thoại Ngọc Hầu thong qua hoạt động đối thoại đóng kich Internet: www.wikipedia.org http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Tompkins-RolePlaying.html http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~mr9643/Benifits%20of%20Role%20Play.htm http://www.yale.edu/peace/role-play.htm I http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/roleplaying/howto.html http://www.englishonline.org.cn/en/teachers/workshops/spoken-errors/role-play# http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/new-student-role-play# http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0102-roleplay.html http://www.eslprintables.com/speaking_worksheets/role_plays/ http://www.studymode.com/essays/Teaching-English-Through-Role-Play-418568.html http://edu.go.vn/e-tap-chi/tin/5/161/2188/ve-viec-day-va-hoc-tieng-anh-hien-nay.html II APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (For teachers) This questionnaire is designed for our research on applying role-play activity in teaching speaking in high schools Your assistance in completing the following items is greatly appreciated Please feel free to complete this questionnaire as you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation Do your students like learning speaking? a They like it very much b They like it c They like it a little d They don't like it How is your students' speaking ability? a Very good b Good c Pretty good d Not good Have you ever applied role-play activities in teaching speaking? a Yes, I have b No, I haven't How you think about applying role-play in increasing students' interest in learning speaking? a Very useful b Useful c Normal d Useless According to you, what are the usefulness of role-play activities? a Students can get better in their imagination and creativity b Students can use English in natural way III c Students can talk about daily-life topic that they are interested in d It help students increase their confidence when speaking in the public e All of the above How often you apply role-play activities in teaching speaking? a Usually b Sometimes c Rarely d Never Is it difficult to apply role-play in teaching speaking? a Very difficult b Difficult c Normal d Easy When applying role-play activities, what are difficulties? a Lacking of time to prepare for this activities b The activities are too strange to students so they are afraid to participate in c Cannot involve all students in the activities d The limitation of students' speaking ability When applying in role-play activities, does your students' speaking interest increase? a It increases very much b It increases c It increases a little d It doesn't increase 10 When applying in role-play activities, does your students' speaking ability be improved? a It's improved very much c It's improved a little b It's improved d It isn't improved IV APPENDIX BẢNG CÂU HỎI (Dành cho học sinh) Chúng lập Bảng câu hỏi nhằm phục vụ cho việc tìm hiểu thực trạng áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai dạy mơn nói ( tiếng Anh) lớp 11 trường THPT Lai Vung Xin em vui lòng trả lời câu hỏi cách xác Những thơng tin câu trả lời em giữ kín khơng sử dụng với mục đích khác ngồi nghiên cứu Chúng tơi chân thành cảm ơn giúp đỡ em Các em khoanh tròn chữ (a,b,c…) trước câu trả lời mà em cho phù hợp với Em có thích học mơn nói khơng? a Rất thích b Thích c Thích d Khơng thích Em có nghĩ học mơn nói quan trọng không? a Rất quan trọng b Quan trọng c Không quan trọng d Không quan trọng Khả nói tiếng Anh em nào? a Rất tốt b Tốt c Khá tốt d Khơng tốt Trong học mơn nói, thầy (cơ) em có thường sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai hay không? a Thường xuyên b Thỉnh thoảng V c Hiếm d Không Em nghĩ cách thức áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai thầy (cơ) em dạy nói? a Rất thú vị b Khá thú vị b Không hợp lý nhàm chán Em có thích hoạt động đóng vai hay khơng? a Rất thích b Thích c Thích d Khơng thích Theo em, tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai có giúp ích cho em hay khơng? a Có nhiều b Có c Có d Khơng Nếu có, lợi ích gì? a Có thể phát huy trí tưởng tượng khả sáng tạo trở thành người khác b Có thể sử dụng ngơn ngữ cách tự do, từ làm cho việc học ngơn ngữ trở nên tự nhiên c Có hội để nói đề tài quen thuộc sống hàng ngày d Tất lợi ích Em có cảm thấy hứng thú với vai mà thầy (cô) em giao tham gia vào hoạt động hay không? a Rất hứng thú b Có c Khơng hứng thú d Khơng VI 10 Thuận lợi em tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai? a Có đủ tự tin vào khả trình bày trước đám đơng b Có hứng thú với hoạt động giao tiếp học c Thích trải nghiệm vào nhân vật, dạng người khác sống 11 Khi tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, khó khăn em gì? a Khơng đủ tự tin để thể vai diễn trước lớp b Khơng có đủ vốn từ vựng để diễn đạt nhân vật đóng muốn nói c Khơng có hứng thú vời đề tài đưa d Tình đưa q khó, khơng phù hợp với khả thân 12 Khi tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, em thích chủ đề có liên quan đến nội dung sách giáo khoa hay chủ đề bên giáo viên đưa ra? a Chủ đề có liên quan đến nội dung sách giáo khoa b Chủ đề bên liên quan đến sống hàng ngày giáo viên đưa c Cả hai loại chủ đề 13 Lời hướng dẫn để thực hoạt động đóng vai thầy (cơ) em hiểu hay khơng? a Rất dễ b Dễ c Khá dễ d Không dễ 14 Sau tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, em có thấy hứng thú học mơn nói khơng? a Có nhiều b Có c Có d Khơng VII 15 Khi tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, khả nói tiếng Anh em có cải thiện khơng? a Có nhiều b Có c Có d Khơng CÁM ƠN SỰ HỢP TÁC CỦA CÁC EM ! VIII APPENDIX OBSERVATION SHEET Teacher's name: School: Grade: students: Number of Observer: Date: Type of lesson Time: Management and control of the class Excellent Very Good Average Poor good Instructions are clear and understood The teacher monitors the class The teacher controls the role-play activity The teacher‟s time using for role-play activity is appropriate The stage that teacher applies role-play is appropriate Students learning and involvement Excellent Very Good Average Poor good The teacher establishes rapport with the students in the role-play activity The teacher involves the students and keeps them interested in the role-play activity The teacher encourages and praises The effectiveness of applying role- Excellent Very Good Average Poor play good Students are enthusiastic and active in IX the activities Students are interested in their characters Students can use English to express what their character feel/ think Students interest in the activities X ... in increasing students'' interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung high school 1.5 Significance of the study Hopefully, the findings of the study may make a contribution to. .. environment For these reasons above, the researcher decide to carry out the thesis ? ?Applying role-play in increasing student? ?? interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung high school? ??... speaking class 1 .2 Aims of the study The thesis aims to identify how students interest in learning speaking The thesis, in addition, aims to find out the effect of using role-play in speaking