VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -  *  - NGUYỄN THANH BÌNH DESIGNING ORAL COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR AN ENGLISH CLUB AT XUAN HUY HIGH SCHOOL TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING COMPETENCE Nghiên cứu thiết kế hoạt động ngôn ngữ giao tiếp lời câu lạc tiếng Anh trường THPT Xuân Huy nhằm nâng cao lực nói học sinh M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Dr DUONG THU MAI Hanoi, 2014 i DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work I have provided fully documented references to the others‟ work The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library Research‟s signature Nguyen Thanh Binh ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Duong Thu Mai, Ph.D for her valuable guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout the research Also, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the lecturers in the Department of Postgraduate Studies, College of Foreign languages, VNU for their useful lessons from which have inspired me to conduct this thesis I am greatly indebted to my students- the members in Xuan Huy English Club and my colleagues at Xuan Huy high school for their participation and assistance without which this study could not have been successful Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my loving parents, my husband, my children and my close friends who offered me their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study iii ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investigate the designing of oral communicative activities for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students‟ competence The main purposes of the study are to find out the needs for improving speaking competence of students from Xuan Huy High school and the effectiveness of the speaking activities designed according to students‟ needs and applied in Xuan Huy School‟s English Club The study reviews theoretical background relating to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in teaching speaking, characteristic of Communicative Language Teaching, teaching speaking according to CLT, English speaking club in CLT before presenting the instrumentation, data collection and data analysis of the study To be specific, two sets of questionnaires were administered to discover the students‟ needs about oral communicative activities as well as their perception of the use of these activities in Xuan Huy English Club Moreover, interviews were delivered to seven teachers to investigate their needs about oral communicative activities Lastly, English Club meeting observations were also employed to clarify and test the validity of information about the effectiveness of designed activities Basing on the findings of the studies which revealed teachers and students‟ need about oral communicative activities, the researcher provided some suggested activities for enhancing students‟ speaking competence The finding also discovered students‟ good and bad perception about applied oral communicative activities iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Objective of the study .2 Research questions Scope of the study Methodology Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching 1.1.1 The concept of Communicative Language Teaching 1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching 1.2 Teaching speaking according to Communicative Language Teaching 1.2.1 Definition of Speaking 1.2.2 The nature of speaking in oral communication 1.2.3 Definition of Speaking Competence 1.2.4 Communicative activities in CLT 1.2.5 Oral communication in CLT approach viii 1.2.6 Types and design of oral communicative activities 1.2.7 Evaluating oral communicative activities 11 1.3 English Speaking Clubs in CLT 11 1.3.1 Definition of Clubs 12 1.3.2 The roles of English speaking club in CLT 12 1.4 Previous studies in the world and in Vietnam about designing communicative oral activities 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13 2.1 The contexts of the study 14 2.1.1 An overview of the English Club of Xuan Huy high school 14 v 2.1.2 Students at Xuan Huy high school 14 2.1.3 Teachers at Xuan Huy high school 14 2.1.4 Facilities at Xuan Huy high school 15 2.2 Participants and setting of the study 15 2.2.1 Participants: 15 2.2.2 Setting of the study 15 2.3 Data collection 16 2.3.1 Data collection instruments 16 2.3.2 Data collection procedure 18 2.3.3 Data analysis procedures 19 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20 3.1 Students‟ need analysis and teachers' interview 20 3.2 Students‟ perceptions about English oral communicative activities 26 3.3 Findings from English observation 30 CHAPTER 4: DESIGNING ORAL COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 32 4.1 Face to face games (group work) .32 4.2 Face to face game (Pair work) 33 4.3 Circle conversation (group work) 34 4.4 Language Camp (group work) 34 4.5 Treasure hunting? (Group work) 36 4.6 Question bags (Group work) 36 4.7 Mystery crosswords (Group work) 37 PART C CONCLUSION 38 Major findings .38 Limitations and suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIX vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching MA Master of Arts MOET Ministry of Education and Training VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi EFL English Foreign Language vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figures: Figure 1: How oral communicative activities can help students 26 Tables: Table 1: How oral communicative activities can help students 22 Table 2: Patterns of speaking activities teachers often use to teach speaking skills in classroom 23 Table 3: Students‟ preference for the types of oral communicative activities 24 Table 4: factors may encourage students to communicate in oral communicative activities 25 Table 5: What teachers should to create good relationship and to help students in oral communication 25 Table 6: Frequency in organizing oral communicative activities 27 Table 7: The content of oral communicative activities 27 Table 8: the most suitable way that teachers or facilitators give feedback with students' wrong answers 28 Table 9: Students‟ assessment about oral communicative activities 29 Table 10: Students‟ assessment about their friends' enjoyment with all oral communicative activities 29 Table 11: The most effective pattern to improve students' speaking competence 30 Table 12: Assessment about oral communicative activities students participated in 30 Table 13: What teachers did to create good relationship and to help students in oral communication 31 Table 14: Assessment about the time spent on applied oral communicative language activities 32 Table 15: Assessment about the content of oral communicative activities 32 Table 16: The effectiveness of oral communicative activities 33 viii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Speaking is a very important part in studying English and in order to communicate one to each other, make good communication, people need to speak Having good English speaking competence is very essential especially for the students because it becomes the bridge for them to know the world However, the problems that teachers and students of English in Vietnam, especially in mountainous areas cope with are having few opportunities to use English in authentic contexts outside the classroom for learners, the students‟ characteristics are being quiet and shy, the teachers' difficulties in controlling oral communication activities in large classes, or the lack of oral communicative activities in the textbooks As a consequence, learners have many problems, especially in oral communication When they try to express themselves orally, they only pronounce isolated words and disconnected sentences making their production poor and meaningless Moreover, since speaking is required in academic and professional performances, the lack of oral production skills becomes a serious disadvantage There may be two main reasons for this The first reason, which is a basic one for every high school students, is low motivation in studying It is undeniable that passing examinations is one of the most important motivations in studying However, according to the policy from MOET, the semester and final examinations only focus on reading skills through the multiple-choice format The lack of background knowledge is the second basic reason for students having poor speaking competence Against the problems above, in recent years, one of the key tasks of the school year in which the Department of Education and Training has given to all local high schools, including Xuan Huy high school, is organizing English speaking activities in English club so that students have opportunities to enhance their language skills and create “language environment” This actual requirement sets a challenging task for teachers of English in Xuan Huy high school, which is to design communicative activities which can provide students with “real” contexts for negotiating meaning so that they can develop communicative competence This is also the reason why this study in designing oral communicative language activities for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students‟ competence was conducted with the hope of enhancing the ability to speak for students Helping students to have better English speaking competence also means helping them in choosing their field of study and looking for opportunities in the future Objective of the study For the above-given reasons, the main purposes of the thesis are as the following: (1) Discussing the needs for improving speaking competence of students from Xuan Huy High school (2) Investigating the effectiveness of designed oral communicative language activities for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students' speaking competence Research questions The study intends to find out the answers to the following questions: What are the students‟ needs about activities to improve their speaking competence? What are the teachers‟ needs about activities to improve their students‟ speaking competence? Which oral communicative language activities should be designed for an English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students' speaking competence? What is students‟ perception of the designed activities? Scope of the study At present, speaking a foreign language represents one of the essential requirements of today's society Besides other skills and knowledge, it is considered one of the most influencing factors while applying for a job or sustaining in a particular work position under the condition of advancing the language level Speaking is a broad and complex area that takes much time to study by linguists Moreover, the establishment and maintenance of Xuan Huy English club has contributed to the improvement of students‟ speaking ability Therefore, this study mostly focused on designing some oral communicative language activities for English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students' speaking competence Because of the limited time and within an M.A minor thesis, the researcher intends to make a brief view of the current situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill in Xuan Huy high school, identifies teachers and students‟ preferences and demands about English speaking activities in English Club, then applies some designed oral communicative activities and examines the effectiveness of these activities in improving students‟ speaking competence Methodology In order to accomplish this study, quantitative method was mainly used The data collected for the study comes from two sources: All members in English club and all teachers of English at Xuan Huy high school ... English Club of Xuan Huy high school 14 v 2.1.2 Students at Xuan Huy high school 14 2.1.3 Teachers at Xuan Huy high school 14 2.1.4 Facilities at Xuan Huy high school ... English club at Xuan Huy high school to improve students‟ competence The main purposes of the study are to find out the needs for improving speaking competence of students from Xuan Huy High school... conduct this thesis I am greatly indebted to my students- the members in Xuan Huy English Club and my colleagues at Xuan Huy high school for their participation and assistance without which this