VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
***

LƢƠNG THỊ MINH PHƢƠNG A STUDY ON THE USE OF TASK-BASED APPROACH IN
TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE 2
nd
YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED
STUDENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC THEO
ĐƢỜNG HƢỚNG GIAO NHIỆM VỤ TRONG DẠY HỌC KĨ NĂNG
NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 6014.0111 HA NOI, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI


CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A study on the use of task-based approach
in teaching speaking to the 2
nd
year English majored students” is my own study in
the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of
Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi.

Hanoi, 2014

Luong Thi Minh Phuong
ii

Acknowledgements


year English majored students at Vietnam
University of Commerce. A one group pre-test/post-test quasi-
experimental design was employed with the participation of 40 students
from English Faculty. The test results showed that the task-based approach
had a positive impact on students‟ speaking achievement after the
experiment. Another instrument, the questionnaire, was administered to
the participants in order to draw on qualitative data. The data revealed the
positive consequences for significant changes in students‟ learning attitude
and motivation. The task-based project also welcomed favorable
evaluations from the students that would be of great help to the future
applications of task-based language teaching.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Pages
Acknowledgment ii
Abstract iii

2.4 Data Collection Procedures 22
2.5 Data Analysis Methods 22
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 24
3.1. Students’ improvement in learning speaking 24
v

3.2. Students’ attitudes towards and motivation of the Task-based project 30
a. Students‟ attitudes 30
b. Level of motivation amongst students adopting the TBL 33
3.3. Students’ difficulties encountered in the TBL project 34
3.4. Students’ expectation of the improvement of the TBL 35
PART C: CONCLUSION 37
4.1Recapitulation 37
4.2 Limitations of the study 38
4.3 Suggestions for further study 38
REFERENCES 40
APPENDIX I I
APPENDIX II III
APPENDIX III IV

List of Tables

Table 1: Scores of the pre-test and post-test 26
Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations of the scores of the pre-test and post-tes 26
Table 3.1: Paired Samples Test 27
Table 3.2: T-test Results 27
Table 4: Scores of Pre-treatment and post-treatment Tests 29
Table 5: Students’ attitude towards the task-based project 32
List of Graphs

Graph 1: Frequency distribution of the pre-test scores 28
Graph 2: Frequency distribution of the post-test scores 29
Graph 3: Levels of interest in the new speaking learning method 31
Graph 4: Students’ attitude towards the TB project 32
Graph 5: Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the TBL approach 33

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PART A - INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Courses in (listening and) speaking skills have a prominent place in language
programmes around the world today. Ever-growing needs for fluency in English
around the world as a consequence of the role of English as the world‟s

the influence of implementing task-based approach on the second-year-English-
major students at Vietnam University of Commerce (VUC). Specifically, it
addressed the following research question:
- How do second-year English major students at Vietnam University of
Commerce benefit from the implementation of the task-based
approach?
The focus of the study is not only on student‟s achievement in their speaking
skills but also on their changes in learning attitude and motivation.
3. Scope of the study
The study was conducted on 40 second-year English major of the English
Department of Vietnam University of Commerce and restricted to the first half of
the first semester of 2013-2014. The intervention lasted for about one month and a
half with five contacts, each a week.
4. Significance of the study
The study was conducted to find out whether the TB approach fits the needs
of enhancing second-year students‟ speaking ability. As a result, the teachers at
VUC are persuaded to adopt this approach in their teaching not only speaking but
other language skills.
5. Method of the study
a. Sample
The sample consists of 40 students of the early second year in English
Faculty of Vietnam University of Commerce. The students were selected randomly
according to their credit registration at the end of the first year.
The class were to receive TB instruction following an oral pre-test and then
another post-test to check the effect of the new approach on speaking ability.
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The class were taught by the teacher who is qualified and has 5 years of
experience in teaching business English at VUC.
b. Instrumentation

reviews of related studies concerning Business English, speaking skills
and task-based language teaching (TBLT).
- Chapter 2 – Research Method continues with the research method
including the participants of the study, the instrumentation, the methods
and procedures of data collection and data analysis.
- Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion demonstrates the findings
accompanied by data analysis and discussion.
Part C – Conclusion recapitulates the major findings of the study and
represents further recommendations for the implementation of
TBLT. 5

PART B - DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 – THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1.1 Business English
Business English has been receiving much concern from ESP practitioners,
learners and language researchers. Orr (2002) sees Business English as a subfield
that focuses on the development of communicative competence for business settings,

working in businesses, or preparing to work in the field of business, i.e. a needs-
directed teaching in which as much as possible must be made job-related, focused
on learners‟ needs and relevant to them.
The content matter in Business English can be divided into two broad
categories of real content and career content and is mentioned in the work of
Dudley-Evans and John (1998). Defining the real content and career content in BE
teaching are of utmost importance to BE teachers.
Career content concerns all activities related to the process of
communication and learning of students including reading, listening, writing and
speaking. By the way of illustration, career content in speaking skills is placed on
the performance-related activities like socializing or providing for personal needs
when on a business trip. The real content deals with the language used in ESP
materials and teaching. As being defined by Dudley-Evans and John (1998), real
content includes linguistic and communicative skills of students‟ communicative
and learning activities.
There is a significant correlation between career content and real content for
the former is made the focal point while the latter is introduced the following career
content requirements. It leads to the achievement of the integration of particular
content with language teaching aims, so that the career content dictates the selection
and sequence of language to be learned by students.
1.1.2 Speaking
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Various definitions on the concept of speaking have been pointed out by a
number of language researchers. According to Chaney (1998, p. 13), speaking is the
process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal
symbols, in a variety of contexts. Accordingly, Brown, (1994); Burns & Joyce,
(1997) and Florez (1999, p.1) consider speaking as an interactive process of
constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing
information. Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs,

small, informal meetings and discussions of all kinds. Each of them requires
specific kinds of language and language skills. Besides, language functions relating
to participating in meetings can be found in negotiating, setting out facts and
figures, expressing opinions, supporting an argument, agreeing and disagreeing,
balancing points of view, make suggestions, promising, interrupting, and adding
new points (Ellis & Johnson: ibid).
b. Oral presentations
Oral presentation, or spoken monologue, can be a feature of EOP and EAP
works (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998:112) including BE. Presentations are great
way to have students practice all language system areas (vocabulary, grammar,
discourse and phonology) and skills (speaking, reading, listening and writing). They
also build confidence and presenting skills that needed for most people in the world
of work. Presentation skills can be built through different sets of activities and
learning form, take task-based as an example. According to Dudley-Evans and John
(1998), confidence is a significant factor for many people in speaking a language
and classroom feedback should be based on maintaining and increasing confidence.
Teacher can make a motivation for speaking by highlighting and building on their
students‟ strengths as well as discussing positive features first. Areas for
improvement in students‟ oral presentation skills need concrete suggestions of ways
and means of achieving them.
c. Telephoning
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Telephoning can be distinguished as a performance area even though it
actually refers to a channel of communication and may cover a wide range of
situations and types of interactions (Ellis and Johnson, 1994) in business. For non-
native speakers, speaking on the telephone presents a variety of new and difficult
barriers to natural communication because of having no visual supports (graphics,
figures, facial expression, etc.), yet it is an unavoidable and crucial part of the
business world.

learning process. During this interaction practices, students have chance to
understand each other and to express their own meaning. Richards and Rodgers
(2001) and Larsen-Freeman (2000) give their own definition on the term „task‟, a
frequently used words in classroom for years. In TBLT, tasks are always central
activities where the target language is used for a communicative purpose in order to
achieve an outcome emphasizing on exchanging meaning not producing language
forms. The tasks here cover a wide range of language but a concentration on one
particular structure, function, or vocabulary group. This belief is based on the belief
that student can use language effectively when focusing on the task itself rather than
on the language they are using. Since tasks are basic unit of a TBLT framework, it
is crucial to give clear definitions of tasks.
2.3.1 Definitions of tasks within Task-based Instruction (TBI)
According to Willis (1996), tasks are activities where the target language is
used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an
outcome. That means a task can be anything from doing a puzzle to making an
airline reservation.
Other definitions are provided by a number of scholars like Nunan (2004),
Long (1985)s, Breen (1987), Skehan (1996b). Those concepts are defined on the
basis of scope and perspective. Nunan (2004) describes task as a piece of classroom
work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing, or
interacting with the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing
their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning … rather than form. He
emphasizes the fact that pedagogical tasks involve communicative language use as
well as agrees with Willis and Wills (2001) that tasks differentiate themselves from
grammatical exercises by aiming to achieve an outcomes with a free use of range of
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language structures. Skehan (1998) proposed a definition of task following Candlin
(1987), Nunan (1989), Long (1989) and others that a task is an activity in which: (1)
meaning is primary, (2) there is some communication to solve, (3) there is some sort

dealing with interviews), unplanned tasks (face-to-face conversations); (3)
convergent tasks (problem solving through social interaction) and divergent tasks
(exchanging information to achieve the same outcome).
b. Task components
Drawing on the conceptualizations of Candlin (1987), Wright (1987a) and
some others, Nunan (1989:48) analyzes task in terms of its components: goals,
input, procedures, teacher role, learner role, and settings. The diagram of task and
its components is displayed as follow:
Goals Teacher role
Input TASK Learner role
Activities Settings
Figure 1: Task components
- Goals are the general intentions behind any given task.
- Input refers to the data that form the point of departure for the tasks.
- Activities specify what learners will actually do with the input.
- Teachers and learners roles refer to the part that learners and teachers are
expected to play.
- Settings refer to the classroom arrangements carrying out the tasks.
1.2.3 Task-based learning in a Business English course
According to Ellis and Johnson (1994:39), in case of applying TBLT in
teaching BE, more attention should be paid to such following points:
- Task simulation must be the fabric of a business course as should fit in the
learner‟s real situation as closely as possible.
- Practice tasks may comprise of long or short ones, from asking learners to
describe a company‟s product to setting up a telephone role-play or a
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simulated meeting or getting them to prepare a short presentation defending a
certain point of view.
- Within classroom environment, tasks must be deeply defined so that the


support: whether to allow students access to the input data while performing the
task (Robinson, 1995; Brown et al, 1984; Foster and Skehan, 1997); (3) surprise:
introducing some surprise element into the task (Foster and Skehan, ibid), and (4)
control: giving learners opportunity to choose the way they like to do the task
(Kuramadivelu, 1993; Breen, 1997).
The post-task stage is called as „language focus‟ that includes consciousness-
raising activities and practice-oriented work of words, structures, and functions
required for a communicative purpose and relevant to learners (Willis, 1996).
Meanwhile, Skehan (1998) suggests altering attentional balance through post-task
activities such as public performance (Samuda et al, 1996), analyzing task
performance (Lynch, 1998). This stage also covers the reflection and consolidation
that are to encourage learners to restructure, and to use the task and its performance
as input to help in the process of „noticing the gap‟ and to develop language (Willis
and Willis, 1996; Johns, 1991). Bygate (1996, 1999), Lynch and Maclean (2000,
2001) believes within the cycles of task-based activities, there may be task
repetition.
1.3 Advantages of TBLT
Task-based Language Teaching is an application of second language teaching
informed by the most recent research findings on second Language acquisition
(SLA). As such, it plays an important role in current language pedagogy (Solares,
2006). Amongst advocates of TBLT are Ritchie (2003), Skehan (1996b), Bowen
(2000), or Nunan (2005). TBLT has the advantage of getting the student to use
their skills at their current level. To help develop language through its use. It has the
advantage of getting the focus of the student toward achieving a goal where
language becomes a tool, making the use of language a necessity. Ritchie (2003),
consider TBLT a better approach over traditional ones because learners are exposed
to richer language, namely the comprehensible input.
Skehan (1996b) indicated that the strength of TBLT is that it provides learners
the opportunity to make use of lexical resources they have either from previous

particular: misrepresentations of the theoretical background for TBLT and failures
to acknowledge the differences existing amongst advocates of TBLT like
Seedhouse (e.g. 1999; 2005), Sheen (1994; 2003), Swan (2005a; 2005b),
Widdowson (2003), Carless (2005), and Littlewood (2007).
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It is obvious that TBLT allows interactions to take place depending on three
factors: the proficiency of the students, the design features of tasks, and the method
of implementation. Therefore, more advanced learners performing more complex
tasks will engage in more linguistically rich interactions, especially if they are given
the opportunity to engage in pre-task and online planning (Yuan and Ellis, 2003).
Moreover, the rich evidence from task-based literature can firmly show that tasks
can result in highly complex language use. Different kinds of tasks in different
levels bring students chance to employ the TBA flexibly from group works (i.e.
problem solving, socializing) or individually (input-based tasks, information gap
tasks, for example, according to Prabhu). Besides, the role of the teachers do not
show only in facilitating learners to understand what to do but also in the pre-task
and post-task stages as correctors and providers of new language. Also, the TBLT
do not prohibit learners from using L1 (mother tongue) all the time as sociocultural
theory views the L1 as a useful cognitive tool for scaffolding L2 learner production
and facilitating private speech (see, for example, Anton and DiCamilla, 1998); and
Learners make effective use of the L1 to establish the goals for a task and the
procedures to be followed in tackling it.
1.5 Theoretical justification for TBLT
TBLT has evolved in a respond to a better understanding of the way languages
are learned, claimed Foster (1999), that is, language is acquired through
communication (Howard, 1984). This comment is based on the research findings in
SLA (second language acquisition) that learners do not acquire target language in
the order it is presented to them no matter how carefully teachers and textbooks
organize it (Foster, 1999; Skehan, 1996). The rationale for the employment of