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PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Foreign language teaching (FLT) at the secondary school level in Vietnam has been granted increasing supports from educational authorities, regarding the demand of Vietnamese young population for better means of communication with the world The most important issue in this field, which has presented various complicated problems for generations of foreign language teachers in Vietnam as well as anywhere in the world, is the adoption of an appropriate language teaching method Having been aware of this necessity, TP high school as well as others in Ha Noi has paid considerable attention to update teaching methodologies, which can be seen from the year 2003 to date TP high school has been chosen to teach a pilot set of text-books then In accordance with the new materials, teaching methods should also be changed The most effective approaches which have been applied at high schools are learner-centred instruction, tasked-based language teaching and communicative language teaching Of which, the last approach is the main topic we would like to spend time researching on in this field, with its application to teaching and studying speaking skill There are sound reasons for me to take the application of CLT to speaking teaching into consideration, rather than others First of all, for some time, English teaching in Vietnam has been strongly influenced by the traditional methods Emphasis has been placed on the mastery of language structures rather than on how language is used Teachers as well as students are used to concentrating on grammatical items Students are asked to translate or analyze the text grammatically Teachers usually spend most of the time in class explaining the form of the language to students who were passive listeners The result of this kind of teaching and learning, of course, has been far from satisfactory That means that students might be structurally competent but communicatively incompetent They have encountered a lot of problems when dealing with English in real life For example, they find it difficult to understand and use English intonation to express surprise, admiration, or doubt They are also not sure how to address people properly in different situations Second, recent political and economic developments in Vietnam have stimulated the learners’ interest in learning English for communication So the need for communication in English has changed from an emphasis on teaching grammar to an emphasis on teaching communication Speaking skill nowadays plays a much more important role in modem English than ever before Last but not least, the new Tiếng Anh 10 textbook has just been applied widely It has 16 units with interesting topics Every unit consists of lessons: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and a Language Focus one This book was designed with various learning tasks, the purpose of which is to set up communicative situations for students to practise English language Furthermore, the book focuses on learners’ communicative competence without ignoring learners’ linguistic competence It is also accompanied with a great number of team work and group work activities to develop students’ communicative competence And students have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers from the tapes/ CDs accompanied with the books For all the above mentioned reasons, I would like to devote my time and effort to investigating the current speaking teaching and learning situation at TP high school including teaching methods, difficulties faced by the teachers and students, facility… then finding out how CLT is applied to teaching speaking there Especially, the study will recommend suitable and specific communication activities for grade 10 students’ at TP high school – Hanoi to improve their speaking skill The Scope, Objectives, Significance, Methods and Design of the Study 2.1 The Scope of the Study The study focuses on how to teach speaking communicatively to grade 10 students at Tran Phu High school 2.2 Objectives of the Study The objectives of the study are as follows: To investigate the difficulties of teaching and learning speaking faced by the teachers and students; the teachers’ solutions to these difficulties; and the students’ expectations To investigate how CLT is applied to teach speaking to grade 10 students at TP high school in order to improve their speaking skill To suggest some realistic and appropriate class teaching techniques and communicative activities with a view to help teachers enhance their learners in speaking skill 2.3 Significance of the Study This study plays a crucial role for enhancing teaching method of speaking to grade 10 students at TP high school Its implemented recommendations will make the application of CLT at my school successful and effective 2.4 Methods of the Study The researcher collects information from all the teachers of English who teach at TP high school First, questionnaires are delivered to the teachers to investigate difficulties in speaking that they face and solutions that should be implemented Questionnaires are also delivered to the students to find out the students’ attitudes to speaking learning, difficulties confronted and solutions suggested by them Then interviews are carried out to implemented to increase the reliability of the obtained information and provide more information relating to the teachers’ method of teaching speaking The combination of information from interviews for teachers and questionnaires for both teachers and students can help to draw a general picture about the application of CLT in teaching speaking to non- grade 10 students at TP High school 2.5 Design of the Study The thesis consists of three parts Part A is the introduction, which presents the rationales, the scope, the objectives, the method, significance and the design of the study Part B consists of three chapters: Chapter I deals with a historical overview of the literature It starts with the methods and approaches used in teaching foreign languages including the grammar-translation, the audio-lingual and the CLT The next is about using CLT in teaching speaking is dealt with, including many issues such as problems with speaking and speaking activities, principles for speaking techniques, speaking and communication activities, stages of a CLT speaking lesson The final is the review of some previous studies related to applying CLT Chapter II presents the methodology performed in the study It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation and data analysis Chapter III discusses the data of the study and proposes some recommendations for applying CLT in teaching speaking to grade 10 students at TP high school Part C is about the conclusion and suggestions for a further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW I Approaches of language teaching I 1 The Grammar-Translation Method The grammar- translation method is rooted in the formal teaching of Latin and Greek It was the dominant method until the end of the 19 th century and has continued to be used in one form or another until the present day But it has long been “out of fashion” According to Richards and Rodgers (1986:3), the principle characteristics of this method are as follows: Grammar-Translation is a way of studying through detailed analysis of its grammar rules and translations of sentences and texts into or out of the target language; reading and writing are the major focus; little or no systematic attention is paid to listening, and speaking; vocabulary is taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study, and memorization; the sentence is the basic unit of teaching and practicing the language; accuracy is emphasized; grammar is taught deductively; the students' mother tongue is the medium of instruction The Grammar-Translation method requires few resources and so it is easy to apply and cheap to administer And the method is still used in many classroom situations where the class is large, and where there are a lack of teaching and learning facilities and equipment, and where teachers can use Vietnamese to give instructions The Grammar-Translation method concerns itself primarily with the written language of classical literature and ignores authentic spoken communication and the social variation of language River (1981: 31) comments this method as follows: "There is much stress on knowing rules and exceptions" and "little stress is laid on accurate pronunciation and information; communication is neglected" That is to say, over-emphasis on rules and neglect of communicative skills are seen as the main defects of the method Consequently, students learn rules of grammar and vocabulary without much feeling of progress in the mastery of the target language, which cannot motivate them to learn of the target language because they have little opportunity to express themselves through it They just learn what they have to learn without any creativeness The method creates frustration for students, for whom foreign language learning is a tedious experience of memorization of new words and grammatical rules, while it makes few demands on teachers (Richards and Rodgers, 1986:4) I 1.2 Th e Au d io-lin gu al meth od The Audio-lingual Method emanated in America during World War II where there was a need for people to learn foreign languages quickly for military purposes Rivers (1964: 19) summarizes the principles of this method as follows: Foreign language learning is a process of mechanical habit formation Good habits are formed by giving correct responses rather than making mistakes; language skills are learned more effectively if the spoken form is learned before the written form; analogy provides a better foundation for language teaming than analysis Drills can enable learners to form correct analogies The first and the most successful point of this method is to develop students' listening comprehension and fluency in speaking in the target language Students are encouraged by the sense of being able to use what they have learned very early The success or failure of this method depends largely on the qualities of the teachers and the availability of resources The teacher must be a fluent speaker as most of his/her work is done orally in the target language Furthermore, (s)he must be very resourceful when presenting the lesson, that is to say, (s)he must vary his/her techniques to make learning more interesting and meaningful, otherwise, students might be bored with mechanical repetition or be "well-trained parrots" as commented on by Rivers (1981: 47) and "the objective is generally the mastery of sentence patterns rather than creative or communicative use of language" (Brumfit, 1983:8) In addition, native-speaker-like pronunciation is sought and the use of the students’ native language is forbidden, which seems to be impossible to most Vietnamese students especially to secondary school ones I.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching method In CLT, meaning is paramount Wilkins (1972) classifies meaning into notional and functional categories and views learning an SL as acquiring the linguistic means to perform different kinds of functions According to Larsen-Freeman(1986:132), the most obvious characteristic of CLT is that " Almost everything that is done is done with communicative intent" Students use the language through communicative activities (e.g games, role-plays and problem-solving tasks) According to Morrow (in Johnson and Morrow, 1981), activities that are truly communicative have three features: information gap, choice, and feedback An information gap occurs when one person exchanges the information he has with the one who does not Another characteristic of CLT is the introduction of authentic material In CLT, it is considered desirable to give learners the opportunity to genuine communicative needs in realistic L2 situations so that they develop strategies for understanding language as actually used by native speakers (Canale & Swain, 1980) Also, "activities in the Communicative Approach are often carried out by students in small group" (Larsen-Freeman, 1986; 132) Students are expected to interact with one another, either through pair and group work or in their writings (Finocchiaro & Brumfit, 1983) CLT favors interaction among small numbers of students in order to maximize the time each student has to learn to negotiate meaning Teachers therefore select learning activities according to how well they engage the students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than in the merely mechanical practice of language patterns Another dimension of CLT is "its learner-centered and experience-based view of' second language teaching" (Richards &Rodgers, 1986; 69) According to CLT theory, individual learners possess unique interests styles, needs, and goals that -should be reflected in the design of instructional methods (Savignon, 1983) Teachers are to develop materials based on the demonstrated needs of a particular class Students must be made to feel secure, unthreatened, and non-defensive in a CLT classroom, so teachers using CLT should avoid adopting a teacher-centred, authoritarian posture (Taylor, 1983) Thus, Li (1989: 967) summaries the characteristics of CLT in categories as follows: a focus on communicative functions a focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language form efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations the use of authentic, from life materials the use of group activities the attempt to create a secure, non-threatening atmosphere CLT focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language form, which helps heighten learners’ motivation in learning a language because they not often concentrate their mind on the sterile forms or grammatical items of the target language One more fact is that in CLT, the use of a variety of different kinds of tasks is said to make teaching and learning more communicative since it provides a purpose for its own sake Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations are another advantage of CLT because learners can find the tasks and language relevant to them, appropriate to their needs Apart from an analysis of genuine, realistic situations, tasks and language can be made relevant to learners through the use of authentic, from-life materials, Authentic materials help create opportunities for learners to be exposed to "real" language, the language that is natural and popularly used by the society The degree of learners' exposure to real language can be said to positively influence their understanding of the language being communicated in real life, thus enhance their acquisition and appropriate production of the language CLT favors interaction among small numbers of learners with a purpose to maximize the time each learner learns and uses language, shares information and negotiate meaning Through interaction learners' learning experience can be modified, many kinds of learning strategies made aware and applied, and especially classrooms move away from teacher-centredness to learner-centredness, which is an essential element to raise learners’ motivation in language learning Group work, either in its simplest form (pair work) or in group of three or more, can promote learners' responsibility and self-governing One more important advantage of group work has the relationship with learners psychological factors: group work lessens learners' anxiety The last but not least strong point of CLT is that teachers are often aware of attempting to create a secure, non-threatening atmosphere Many researchers and pedagogist consider this attempt to be the first and most important work for teachers to in CLT classes Traditional learning styles of listening and writing down as well as unfamiliarity with communicative activities can make learners anxious or even ashamed of speaking with other classmates Learners may also be afraid that "other classmates will think or comment about their ability" (Bock, 2000:25) Beside the good points of CLT, it can cause some difficulties to teachers According to Bock’s study (2000, page 24-30) provides groups of difficulties: difficulties from students, difficulties from educational system and difficulties from teachers Concerning difficulties from students, Bock states specific problems: + Students lack motivation for communicative competence because they seem to be over-concerned with passing exams which rarely test for communicative competence + Students show resistance to class participation and the reasons may come from their anxiety, laziness and unfamiliarity with communicative lessons + Students use Vietnamese during group work and the sources of the difficulty are also anxiety and unfamiliarity with CLT + Students are of low English proficiency With regard to difficulties from educational system, Bock cites specific factors: + Conducive facilities are inadequate (desks, chalkboards, missing lightbulbs…) + Class sizes are large ( more than 40 students) + Classes are of multi-levels As to the difficulties from teachers, Bock mentions main problems: + Teachers feel inadequate because they lack training in CLT and experience in implementing CLT + Teachers find it unable to assess communicative competence because they are not given methods to assess communicative competence I.1.5 Conclusion It is undeniable that the current trend of learning English for communication is popular Of the above mentioned teaching methods, CLT is the most appropriate way to teach students to communicate The grammar-translation method focuses on grammar, reading and writing, little or no systematic attention is paid to listening and speaking, and learners’ aim is to master the language not to use the language As a result, students cannot be able to communicate The audio-lingual method has some characteristics which are difficult for students in Vietnam to follow for example: Native-speaker-like pronunciation is sought, translation is forbidden at early levels, the use of the student’s native language is forbidden… While, CLT stresses on communicative functions and increases students’ ability of using language and its characteristics are applicable My minor thesis is about how to teach speaking communicatively In terms of speaking skill, CLT is the most suitable method which should be applied because of its characteristics Moreover, CLT is considered the current dominant methodology and one of the most effective approaches to teach learners to speak in second language All the mentioned reasons explain why I have decided to choose CLT not any other method to teach speaking I.2 Using CLT and teaching speaking I.2.1 Problems with speaking and speaking activities I.2.1.1 Problems with speaking Brown (1994:256) points out the characteristics of spoken language that can make oral performance difficult as follows: • Clusterings: In order to speak fluently, speakers have to select from their store of language clusterings, that is groups of words, not word by word • Reduced forms: Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc create difficulties in teaching and learning spoken English If learners not learn colloquial contractions, they can develop the kind of speaking that is stilted, bookish • Colloquial language: Colloquialism appears both in monologues and dialogues If learners are only exposed to standard English and/or "textbook" language, they sometimes find it difficult to understand and produce words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language Stress, rhythm and intonation: Learners of English often find it difficult to pronounce English words, to stress the right syllables, to follow the stress-timed rhythm and intonation patterns of spoken English Affective factors: Learners learning to speak often encounter the risk of saying out things that may be wrong, stupid and incomprehensible At those times, they tend to be anxious because they not want to be judged by other learners Interaction The greatest difficulty that learners face in learning to speak originates from the interactive nature of most communication Engaged in process of negotiation of meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to the complex task of choosing what to say, how to say, when to speak, etc I.2.1.2 Problems with speaking activities Classroom activities that develop learners' ability to express themselves through speech is an important component of a language course where CLT is applied However, it is more difficult to design and administer such activities than to so for listening, reading or writing Teachers often come across the problems that Ur (1996:121) lists out: Inhibition Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real time exposure to an audience Learners are often inhibited about trying to say something in a foreign language in the classroom because they are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts Nothing to say Teachers often hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say They may have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking • Uneven or low participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard In a large group, this means that each one has only very little time for talking This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while others speak very little or not at all • Mother-tongue use: When all, or a number of the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it This happens because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and because learners feel less "exposed" if they are speaking their mother tongue If they are talking in a small group, it can be quite difficult to get some classes, particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones, to keep to the target language Overcoming the above-mentioned problems to create a successful speaking activity where learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high certainly requires a lot of teachers' efforts in designing and carrying out speaking activities I.2.1.3 Principles for speaking techniques Speaking techniques, if designed appropriately, give more opportunities for learners to speak accurately and fluently However, designing an effective speaking technique requires experience and laborious work Brown (1994) suggests principles for designing speaking techniques that teachers can base themselves on to have a thorough and profound understanding of teaching speaking His principles are as follows: + Techniques should cover learners' needs, from focus on accuracy to focus on interaction, meaning and fluency: In teachers' effort to teach communicatively, they sometimes stress content-based interactive activities and ignore grammatical pointers or pronunciation Teachers should make sure that classroom tasks include techniques to help learners to perceive and use the building blocks of language However, teachers should make drillings as meaningful as possible and avoid boring learners with lifeless, repetitious drillings +Techniques should be intrinsically motivating: Teachers should try to appeal to learners' ultimate goals and interests, to their need for knowledge , for status Teachers should also help learners see how activities benefit them by telling them why teachers organize those activities +Techniques should encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts: As mentioned in CLT characteristics of meaningful tasks and authentic materials, the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts can help learners acquire language necessary for future use and also help motivate learners +Provide appropriate feedback and correction: In most EFL situations, learners are totally dependent on teachers for useful linguistic feedback It is important that teachers take advantage of their knowledge of 10 ... instrumentation and data analysis Chapter III discusses the data of the study and proposes some recommendations for applying CLT in teaching speaking to grade 10 students at TP high school Part C is about... initiate oral communication: Teachers should allow learners to initiate language because parts of oral communication competence is the ability to initiate conversation, to nominate topics , to ask questions,... communication is popular Of the above mentioned teaching methods, CLT is the most appropriate way to teach students to communicate The grammar-translation method focuses on grammar, reading and writing,