CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study
It is undeniable that English is a means of international communication in the
fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy and so on. In Vietnam,
English has taken on a special significance when people are taking the modernization
and industrialization. In addition, of four English skills, speaking is considered as the
most vital part for communication. Nunan (1989, p.39) has affirmed that “mastering
the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of leaning a second foreign
language”. However, from observation, the researcher has identified the problems in
speaking ability of the first year students at FELTE- ULIS- VNU. It is the fact that the
first year students at FELTE, after five to six years learning English in high school,
still hesitate about practicing speaking English.
For the last decades, Vietnamese students usually have been taught English by
the traditional method like Grammar- Translation. This method considerably cannot
foster the speaking ability of students. According to Prator and Celce-Murcia in
Teaching English as a Second Foreign Language (1979, p. 3), the key features of the
Grammar Translation Method are as follows:
1) Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target
language.
2) Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
3) Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.
4) Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often
focuses on the form and inflection of words.
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5) Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.
6) Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in
grammatical analysis.
7) Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the
target language into the mother tongue.
8) Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
In the light of communicative approach, exploiting information- gap activities

Firstly, the author aimed at finding out the factors affecting the selection to IGA
in teaching speaking skill for the first year students and difficulties in conducting
information-gap activities in teaching. Next, this study was performed to recommend
some solutions for teachers to choose appropriate IGA. To achieve these aims of the
research paper, the following research questions need to be addressed:
1. What are the factors affecting the choices of information-gap activities to teach
speaking skill as perceived by the teachers who are teaching speaking skill for the first
year students at ED-ULIS-VNU?
2. What are the difficulties in selecting and conducting information- gap activities to
teach speaking skill as perceived by the teachers who are teaching speaking skill for
the first year students at ED-ULIS-VNU?
3. What are the solutions to the problems of the teachers in conducting IGA to teach
speaking skill as perceived by the teachers who are teaching speaking skill for the first
year students at ED-ULIS-VNU?
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1.3. Significance of the study
The first and foremost significance of this study is that would provide lecturers
of the FELTE with a closer look at the conduct of the information gap activities from
the aspect of difficulties. Hence, they can equip by themselves with the problems in
use of IGA. Moreover, the findings of the research will supply some hefpful solutions
for teachers to reach better use of IGA to teach speaking skill. In terms of other
researchers who share the same topics, the study can perform as reliable sources for
their further studies in the future.

1.4. Scope of the study
Due to limited time and experience, this study focused mainly on the teacher’s
difficulties in selecting and adapting information-gap activities in teaching speaking
skill. Particularly, this research paper was only made on the aspect of teachers at
FLETE- ULIS- VNU. In fact, this would be more convenient and manageable for the
author who is the last year student at this university. Finally, this graduation paper did

the knowledge of how native speakers use the language in socially constructed
interactions or what is expected socially and culturally by users of target language.
Based on the opinion of Byrne (1998, p.8), speaking is considered as “a two
way process between speaker and listener, involves the productive skill of speaking
and the receptive skill of understanding”. Hence, in the process of speaking, both
speaker and listener play a positive function: the speaker has to encode the message to
be understood in an appropriate language, and the listener has to decode the message.
This view is also shared by Nunan (2003, p.48) who agrees with Byrne at the point
that speaking is a productive oral skill and it consists of producing systematic verbal
utterances to convey meaning.
Scott (1981) believed that in speaking activity, both participants have to play
the role of speaker and listener alternatively when they react to the information they
get and make contribution to it. This definition helps to clarify the role of participants
when taking part in speaking activity. Speaking activity can not be informed when
there is only one person to hear and the other say to the whole of activity.
Finally, the researcher finds the definition of Chaney (1998, p.13) quite easy
to understand and follow. This definition is also closest to the researcher’s perception
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of speaking skill. He affirms that speaking is “the process of building and sharing
meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts.”
In other words, speaking skill is one of methods people use to communicate to each
other.
2.1.2. Teaching speaking skill in Communicative Language Teaching
2.1.2.1. Communicative Language Teaching
The concept of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is introduced first
by Hymes in 1972 as “communicative competences”.
Different from the traditional methods, CLT aims to promote the ability of
learner for effective communication. According to Ellis (1993, p. 91), communicative
language teaching is designed to “provide learners opportunities for communicating in
the second language.” In regard to CLT, Revell (1991, p. 5) claims that “ theories of

Morrow (1981, p.71), teacher , “instead of being the person who provides prompt that
trigger utterance of a certain structure from the students”, “now sets up the
conditions for communication to take place”. In other words, teacher now does not
take only single role of model but more than that. Breen and Candlin (1980)
summarized three main roles of teachers in communicative classroom as “facilitator”,
“participant” and “observer and learner”. Also giving support for this idea, Byrne
(1980, p.1) emphasized that “the first task of a teacher is to create the best conditions
for learning.”
2.1.4. Principles of teaching speaking skill
In regard to this content, Nunan (2003) and Kayi (2006) suggest some
principles that helps teacher to create activity for teaching speaking skill. There are
some prominent principles used here for basic background as following:
1. The teachers should differentiate between second language and foreign
language
2. Fluency and Accuracy should be given to students to practice.
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3. The teachers should provide opportunity for students to talk by using group-
work and pair- work and limit teachers’ talk.
4. Speaking tasks should be planned to involve negotiation of meaning.
5. The teachers should design activities involving guidance and practice in
transactional and interactional speaking.
6. Questions delivered by teachers should motivate students to talk more.
7. Teachers should not correct mistakes in pronunciation so often while they are
speaking.
8. The teachers should reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing
student speaking time. Step back and observe students.
In brief, teachers should well prepare for mixed classes with a variety of levels.
Teachers should create a communication environment for students to practice speaking
skill.
2. 1. 5. Problems in teaching speaking skill

- “Keep students speaking the target language”: There are some ways for
teachers to keep students speaking the target language. Teachers can stay there
besides students as much as possible keeping them from substitute for nagging.
2.2. An overview of information gap activities
2.2.1. The nature of IGA
Cited in Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic
by Richards, Platt and Weber (1979, p.179), “information gap (in communication
between two or more people) is a situation where information is known by only some
of those present.” In the same opinion, Richard (2005, p.17) believed that an
important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap. The
existence of information gap refers to the situation that people communicate to get
information that they do not possess.
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According to Harmer (1989, p.88), information gap is “where two speakers have
different parts of information making up a whole. Because they have different
information, there is a gap between them”.
Johnson and Morrow (1981, p.62) proposed that an information gap means “one
student must be in a position to tell another something that the second student does not
already know”.
Information gap, based on the definition given by Harmer (1991, p.48), is “a gap
between the two persons in the information they possess, and the conversation helps to
close that gap so that now both speakers have the same situation”.
From the previous explanation, the researcher concludes that information gap
means that there is a gap of information between speakers and listener. Also, that gap
is also one of the main reasons they need to communicate to close it. Activities
designed based on information gap, As Scrivener (1994, p.62) explained, is to “get
learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful
ways, usually involving exchanges of information”.
2.2.2. Types of IGA
In fact, the concept of information gap is quite broad. As a consequence, each

Ss: Did you go by car?
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Information gap
activities
Guessing games
Information gap
excises
Exchanging personal
information
Did you go by bus?
Did you walk?
b. Guess the sentence
The teacher writes a sentence on a piece of card. The sentence is hidden, but the
basic structure is written on the board to provide context for the guessing. For
example:
I went to do Then students ask questions to guess the right
sentence.
Ss: Did you go to the park?
Did you go to school?
Did you go to stadium?
c. Guess famous people
One student pretends to be a famous person. The other students make questions to
guess who that famous person is. For example:
Are you Vietnamese or English?
Are you a singer?
Are you a actress?
d. Mime
The teacher calls one student to the board and gives her a sentence. Student will
see and describe by simple activity. The other will try to guess the situation by asking
questions.

student has an
empty grid and
other has the text.
Student with
blank grid has to
ask questions to
find out the
information
Two students are
given two pictures.
Except from some
differences, two
pictures are quite
similar. Students
have to find out the
differences by
describing the
picture to their
friends
Each student has one
or a few pieces of the
“puzzle”, and they
must cooperate to fit
all the pieces into a
whole picture. The
“puzzle” can exist in
many forms. It can
be sentences form a
story or photos to tell
a story

interesting language practice. Although the exercises are quite controlled and use
simple language, the students are really exchanging information and using language
communicatively”.
David Norman, Ulf Levihn and Jan Ander Hedenquist (1986, p.100), discussing
about students’ participation in IGA, affirms that “IGA ensure the classroom activities
involve some exchange of information to more complex exchanges which involve not
only information but ideas and attitudes. They are important because they are a step
away from formal practice towards an activity which more closely mirrors the use of
language outside the classroom”.
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According to Nunan, D. (1989, p.122), “information gap can, in fact, act as a
nucleus around which a range if other tasks and exercise types can be constructed”.
2.2.4. Factors affecting the choice of IGA
In order to choose suitable IGA, teachers should consider some factors. Based
on the graduation paper completed by Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from 051E10, there are
four factors affecting the choice of IGA. The factors are listed as the students’
language level, the time allowance, the language focus and the necessary teaching
aids.
Firstly, students’ language level is the most significant factor. If the activity is
above their level, student will find too difficult to complete. Then, it will waste of time
with no effectiveness.
Secondly, the chosen information gap activities have to be suitable to objectives of the
lesson. Hence, the objectives of the lesson have to be clarified right from the start of
the lesson.
Thirdly, time allowance should be considered, too. For in stance, an
information gap activity set for warming activity should be less than ten minutes.
Meanwhile, fifteen to twenty can be spent for an information gap activity in order to
practice newly presented language items.
Lastly, teaching aids also need paying attention to. If it is difficult to find the
materials for an information activity, IGA should be omitted or replaced. Hence,

Harmer (1991), as an investigator, the teacher has a desire to develop their skills and
language learning. In addition, as an assessor, teacher will give commence on
students’ performance in the activities, then evaluate and adjust teaching target to the
real situations.
In brief, this point of view about the roles of teachers stands at the same ground
as the mentioned literature review. The researcher has concluded that the teachers less
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dominate the time in the class compared to traditional methods. However, it does not
mean that their roles become less important than in traditional activities.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
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In the previous chapter, the researcher presented an overview about the
literature review setting theoretical foundation for the study. In this chapter, the
methodology utilized to answer the research questions would be revealed. The
participants, the instruments to collect data and the procedure to collect and analyze
data would be also indicated.
3.1. Research design
To find the answers for three questions raised in the introduction, the researcher
adopted a combination of the quantitative and qualitative approach. By adopting
quantitative method, the researcher can improve the level of reliabilility when
performing mass survey according to Baseley (1970, as well as “arrives at more
objective conclusions”, and “eliminates or minimizes subjectivity of judgment”
(Kealey & Protheroe, 1996, 141- 165). However, it has restricted the power of
explanation. Combined with qualitative method, including teacher interviews, the data
will be improved. The qualitative approach, according to Burnes (1999, p.22) cited in
the study implemented by Ms. Tran Thi Hieu Thuy, is “to draw conclusions from the
data collected to make sense of how human behaviors, situations and experiences
construct realities”. These instruments were made use of to reveal what the teachers
really thought about information gap and the difficulties they faced up with in reality.
In addition, the scale of this study was quite small. Hence, it would be better if an

main source of data. According to Brown (2001, p.6) “questionnaires are any written
instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which
they react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing
answers”. In theory, questionnaires are both time saving and labour saving for the
researcher. According to Robinson (1991), the procedures for data collection are
“manageable, cost effective in terms of time and money, and appropriate for the
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situation”. In other words, with a relatively short period of time, the researcher can
deliver the survey to a larger number of participants than other methods. In addition, as
Peterson (2001) confirms, the obtained data, especially from closed questions, is
relatively easy to analyze. Those advantages of questionnaires led the researchers to
make use of it as one important instrument for the research.
The questionnaire delivered to the teachers consists of 20 items (mostly close-
ended) organized into 4 sections. Section 1 with 5 questions, aims to collect general
information and categorize the respondents such as age, gender, experience in
teaching speaking skill for the first year students at FELTE- ULIS-VNU. Sections 2
includes 5 questions about information on teachers’ understanding IGA. Section 3
with 9 questions continues to explore experiences of lecturers in choosing and
practicing information gap activities to teach speaking skill. Section 4 with 1 question
aims to recommend the solutions for the problems incited in above sections. Details on
teacher questionnaires can be found in Appendix 1.
3.3.2. Interviews
Besides questionnaires, the researcher used semi- structured interviews as a
data collection instrument for obtaining further information on the issues of the study.
“As interview are interactive, the researcher can elicit additional data if initial
answers are vague, incomplete, off-topic or not specific enough” (Mackey and M.
Grass, 2005). This interview was prepared in advance to get in- depth information
about the difficulties and motivate the participants to provide suggestions for solving
the problems. Dowsett (1986, p.53) confirms that a semi- structured interview gives
the interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interview; it also

participants clearly and informatively so that valid data was collected. Should there be
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further inquires, informants were encouraged to contact the research via email or
mobiphone.
It should be noted that, there were 20 survey questionnaires sent to informants.
Only 15 lecturers sent their answers back. Consequently, the number of informants of
this study has shrinked into 15 insead of 20 as the previous plan.
Step 2: Afterwards, the interviews with teachers were conducted. While
interviewing, the researcher tried best to take notes and tape-record the content under
the interviewees’ permission. It should be reported that there was a shrink of
interviewed informants. Because of time constraint and the difficulties that the high
school for practicum was at a great distance, the researcher could not interview with 5
informants as planned. Hence, the number of participants in interview reduced to 2
people. In addition, for more convenient analysis data and further reference, the
researcher coded the two interviewees as interviewee A and interviewee B according
to the time they were interviewed.
Step 3: Finally, classroom observation was conducted. After noticing the confronts
between the speaking schedule of the first year students and the researcher’s schedule,
the researcher asked for an observation in one left available class. To be more specific,
011.E5 was the class that did not shift to presentation and case study yet.
During the observation, the researcher played the role as a non-participant observer
who performed two main tasks including observing and completing the checklists.
When observing the speaking period with using of IGA in that period, the researcher
made note-taking and recorded from classroom observation. The information would be
analyzed for findings and analysis later.
3.4.2. Processing data
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After having administered the questionnaires, interviews as well as observation, the
researcher processed the results of the questionnaires and completed the print version
of the interviews to make it convenient for later analysis and quoting. Noticeably,

discussed to see which solutions came into practice in the settings of FELTE- ULIS-
VNU.
Summary
The chapter has shown the methodology applied to perform this study. Data was
obtained from lecturers from FELTE, ULIS, VNU with the utilization of
questionnaires and interviews and observation. The data was then analyzed carefully
to ensure the validity and reliability of the research.
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
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