i

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
BÙI THỊ PHƢƠNG THẢO
USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS TO IMPROVE
LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Sử dụng tƣ liệu nghe-nhìn
để nâng cao kỹ năng Nói cho học sinh Trung Học Cơ Sở)

M.A. Minor Thesis Field : English teaching methodology
Code : 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2010

ii

i

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
BÙI THỊ PHƢƠNG THẢO
USING AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS TO IMPROVE
LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Sử dụng tƣ liệu nghe-nhìn
để nâng cao kỹ năng Nói cho học sinh Trung Học Cơ Sở)

M.A. Minor Thesis Field : English teaching methodology
Code : 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2010



v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
2. Aims of the study
3. Scope of the study
4. Method of the study
5. Design of the study

PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I. LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Speaking and speaking skills
1.1.1. Speaking
1.1.2. Speaking skills
1.2. Materials
1.3. Audio-visual Materials
1.3.1. Definitions
1.3.2. Classification
1.4. The effect of audio-visual materials on learning English and
learning speaking skills
1.5. Review of previous studies



P.14
P.15
P.15 vi
2.2.2. Pre-test and post-test design
2.2.3. Observation
2.3. The procedure of collecting the data
2.3.1. Pre-test and Post-test
2.3.2. Questionnaire
2.4. The procedure of analyzing the data

CHAPTER III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Results
3.2. Further discussion
3.2.1. Students’ awareness of the effects of audio-visual materials through
questionnaire
3.2.2. Students’ performance in pre-test and post-test
3.3. Recommendation

PART C. CONCLUSION
1. Review of the study
2. Application of the study in English language teaching
3. Limitations of the study
4. Recommendation for further study

REFERENCE
APPENDIX

II
IV
VI iv
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
Table 1: Audio-visual materials are helpful for the students’ speaking-practice.
p.18
Table 2: Audio-visual materials help improve the students’ pronunciation.
p.19
Table 3: Audio-visual materials help the students recall and use vocabulary better.
p.19
Table 4: Audio-visual materials help the students reduce grammatical mistakes.
p.20
Table 5: Audio-visual materials help the students’ speaking become more fluent.
p.21
Table 6: The students feel enjoyable with a speaking lesson illustrated by sound and
images.
p.21
Table 7: Audio-visual materials distract the students from practicing speaking skills.
p.22
Table 8: The quality of sound and image is good.
p.23
Table 9: The results of pre-test and post-test are analyzed by SPSS 10.0
p.24
Table 10: The collective figures from the questionnaire
p.26
Chart 1: The final scores of pre-test and post-test
p.26

pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. The speaking periods cannot stir the students‟
learning inspiration. Both teacher and students feel tired of such boring periods.
Consequently, my students‟ speaking results are not good. Facing such a worrying
situation, I use audio-visual materials in teaching speaking to expect a change. Fortunately,
the speaking periods become more enjoyable with students‟ active and self-confident
participation. In my point of view, Audio-visual materials are lively illustrations and a
diverse source of information supporting the students‟ speaking-practice. Therefore, in this

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writing I would like to conduct a research on the effect of using audio-visual materials to
improve lower secondary students‟ speaking skills. There are two benefits expected from
this study. Theoretically, it gives out useful references for further research on using audio-
visual materials to develop lower secondary students‟ speaking skills. Practically, the result
of this research will suggest new directions for exploiting the effects of audio-visual
materials to improve the quality of teaching English, especially the quality of teaching
speaking.
The effect of using audio-visual materials on improving lower secondary students‟
speaking skills is investigated in this writing. Although this is only the personal writer‟s
study for limited time on certain participants, not all students of all lower secondary
school, the findings and results still assure the objectivity of research process or at least,
they are also beneficial to the writer‟s applying audio-visual materials in teaching
speaking skills for lower secondary students.
2. Aims of the study
The aims of this study are as follows:
+ Review the implementation of audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary
students‟ speaking skills.
+ investigate the effective ways to exploit audio-visual materials to improve lower
secondary students‟ speaking skills.
To obtain the above aims, three research questions are addressed:
- What are the benefits of using audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary

worth mentioning that the questionnaires contained 8 close-ended questions serving 2
targets to find out the benefits and limitations of audio-visual materials in improving lower
secondary students‟ speaking skills. The pre-post testing including a pre-test and a post test
is carried out at the beginning of pilot teaching process with audio-visual materials and at
the end of the process after 2 months. A comparison between the result of pre-test and
post-test is useful for teacher to control students‟ progress during teaching process.
Questionnaire and pre-post test are conducted to investigate the effect of using audio-visual
materials to improve lower secondary students‟ speaking skills. However, due to the
limitation of time, I cannot conduct the study with all lower secondary students. I just
choose a class with 40 students of grade 8 as one sample. The students of this class are my
selection because they have some-year experiences in learning English to compile a
necessary amount of vocabulary and basic communicative factors. The pre-test and post-
test are conducted in the same way with the same oral topics. The tested students are
divided into groups of five to take 8 different topics for oral test. The different results of

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pre-test and post-test help teacher control the students‟ progress during the pilot teaching
process.
5. Design of the study
In order to make this research easy to understand, the writer would like to present the
structure of the study.
Part A. Introduction. This part mentions the rationale of the study, the aims of the study,
the scope of the study, the research questions, the method of the study, and the design of
the study.
Part B. Development. This part contains three chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 is Literature Review Introduction that contains underlying theories about
speaking and speaking skills, materials, audio-visual materials, effect of audio-visual
materials on learning English and learning speaking skills, and review of previous studies.
Chapter 2 is The Study that presents participants, instruments, the procedure of collecting
the data, and the procedure of analyzing the data.

the correct stress and intonation as the native speakers. They also feel it not easy to keep up
with the speed of speech by native speakers. The teacher at class can partly help the
students solve these problems. However, in fact, many teachers also face the same
difficulties. Each language has its own phonetic characteristics, which not many language
learners can imitate. In this case, sound and image from audio-visual materials can help
much when the students can hear the direct pronunciation and see the operation of

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articulator organs. The students‟ leaning speaking can be fostered by the effective sound
and image from audio-visual materials.
1.2. Materials
In the case of traditional conceptions, teaching materials tend to be considered to be an
instrument to access the target language. They are a means of dealing with grammar,
syntax, phonetics, and cultural matters among others. Apparently, materials only have the
purpose of “presenting” the language in study. They are perceived as instrumental objects
to inform students and help teachers deal with the curricular aspects. For some other
authors such as Tomlinson (1998: 2), a teaching material is regarded as anything that is
used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language. Materials could
obviously be cassettes, videos, CD-Rooms, dictionaries, grammar books, readers,
workbooks or photocopied exercises. They could also be newspapers, food packages,
photographs, live talks by invited native speakers, instructions given by a teacher, tasks
written on cards or discussions between learners. In other words, they can be anything that
is used to increase the learners‟ knowledge and/or experience of the language. Materials
attempt to diminish the level of difficulty when accessing the linguistic aspects of the
target language. At this point, materials are vital resources because they stimulate and
develop students‟ linguistic skills.
The characteristics of materials are debated (by Littlejohn and Windeatt, 1989) as follows:
materials have a hidden curriculum that includes attitudes toward knowledge, attitudes
toward teaching and learning, attitudes toward the role and relationship of the teacher and
student, and values and attitudes related to gender, society, etc. The curriculum is a

computers to improve learning. The term audio-visual (AV) may refer to works with a
sound and a visual component. Hence, audio-visual materials are the most powerful
instruments available for influencing high recall in learning. The impact of audiovisual
materials (filmstrip, slides, tapes, films, records etc.) can be shown in many other ways.
1.3.2. Classification of Audio-visual Materials
The audio-visual materials are divided into three categories: visual materials, audio
materials and both audio-visual materials (Abdul Mannan Bagulia, 2005)
Classification:
Audio Materials, Visual Materials and Audio-visual materials
Audio Materials
Visual Materials
Audio-visual materials
Language laboratories
Bulletin boards
Demonstrations

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radio
chalk boards
films
sound distribution system sets
charts
printed materials with recorded sound
tape and disco recordings
drawings etc.
sound filmstrips

exhibits
study trips


Photographs self-instructional silent films slides 1.4. The effects of audio-visual materials on learning English and learning speaking
skills
The new era assigns new challenges and duties on the modern teacher. The traditional
methods on teaching English have drastically changed because of the remarkable entry of
technology in the arena of teaching. The modern technology provides many options to
make the teaching more interesting, more effective and more productive in terms of
students‟ improvement. Most educators and teachers regard audio-visual materials as
valuable tools in English Language Teaching. The merits of using audio-visual materials in
teaching are touchable and undeniable.
Video materials for teaching and learning English, especially for teaching and learning
speaking are available with various types at different prices. It often takes people much
time to go to a bookstore then find and select a suitable book after reading through its main

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content. However, choosing a video tape seems more easily. Because video tapes in
English for rent or for sale at stores are numerous. As Voller, P., & Widdows said, “Video
materials (films) are accessible English language products available to EFL students
(Voller &Widdows, 1993, P 340)

since they combine seeing and listening together. This satisfies both visual and auditory
senses of the students. The students often feel excited when seeing a film or a video tape.
The sound and pictures from the film bring a lively word beyond the limitation of the
classroom. The process of seeing and listening stir the student‟s vocabulary store. They
want to seek out the suitable words for pictures or something interesting in the film they
saw. In this case, the audio-visual materials bring the students closer to the real world.
Allan (1986 P.48) also had the same comment of the audio-visual materials: “video is a
good means of bringing „a slice of living language‟ into the classroom”. The use of audio-
visual materials also give teacher a good chance to create a virtual world in the classroom
itself. The teacher can go beyond words, beyond the limitation of verbal description by the
power of sound and image. As a result, the learners grasp things easily, without any
confusion or misunderstanding.
Videos and films are excellent instruments to present “the country and its culture” (Allan,
1985, P 19). We all know that learning a language is learning the culture of this language.
Learning speaking is on the same track. The students need to know about the culture and
know how other people live, act and interact based on their beliefs and values. Video-audio
material meets these requirements when it crosses cultural boundaries.
Video materials are useful in motivating students‟ language learning. That is the reason for
teachers‟ usage of pictures as a lead-in. First, Video materials „creates an attractive
enjoyable learning environment.' Tomalin (1991: 48) and as Lonergan says, "By generating
interest and motivation, video can create a climate for successful learning." (1984: 5).
According to Dewing (1992), “video can act as a catalyst for thinking, inspiring (students)
to learn”. Or “provide added incentive to learn and are interesting for the students”
Finocchiaro (1968: P17).
Audio-visual materials also make students “feel their interest quicken when language is
experienced in a lively way”. This combination of moving pictures and sound can present
language more comprehensively than any other teaching medium and more realistically
too" Stempleski & Tomalin (1990: 3). At the same time, audio-visual materials encourage
and support the various learning styles Gunter, Jones & Moss (1991: 10). Because of the


lesson will be shown in the classroom. This not only improves students‟ understanding of
language but also improves their vocabulary. Some special videos can be brought into

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classroom to invoke the students‟ interest for the subject. In tertiary level depending upon
the syllabus a teacher can use variety of audio-video materials.
Audio-visual materials help to reduce verbalism. They help giving clear concepts. A good
deal of energy and time of both the teachers and students can be saved on account of the
use of audio-visual materials as most of the concepts and phenomena may be easily
clarified, understood and assimilated through their use. The use of audio-visual materials
also provides a touch of reality to the learning situation. Seeing a film show, students learn
more effectively than learning by reading.
There are big individual differences among learners. Some can be helped through sound,
some can be helped through visual demonstrations, while others learn better by doing. The
use of a variety of audio-visual materials can meet the needs of different types of students.
The use of audio-visual materials stirs the imagination, thinking process and reasoning
power of the students, and calls for creativity, and inventiveness and other higher mental
activities and thus it helps the development of higher faculties among the students.
1.5. Review of previous study
The use of audio-visual materials in teaching language has been mentioned in many
writings. These writings can be about the effects of audio materials in developing listening
skills. Salazar Jorge (Website:
states that audio-visual materials can develop many types of listening activities at
classroom. Audio-visual materials are abundant source of sounds and images, and they
have characteristics of authentic materials” in the study “Interactive Audio Strategies For
Developing Listening Skills. Lindsay Miller (Website:
gives out her similar opinion in “Developing
Listening Skills with Authentic Materials” when showing that audio-visual materials are
helpful for all pre-while-post listening activities. Debra Hoven with his writing “A Model
for Listening and Viewing Comprehension in Multimedia Environments” in the Website:

challenges and solutions” by Nguyen Van (Website: -
sdh.udn.vn/zipfiles/so30/20.6.nng.long-nguyenvan.pdf). However, the writing on audio-
visual materials is still in narrow number.
After reading reference books and essays, I would like to develop a study on the
application of audio-visual materials to improve speaking skills for specific subjects: lower
secondary students. At the same time, this study exposes the limitations of these materials
in teaching speaking. The results of this study will be useful for me in the process of
applying audio-visual materials to promote lower secondary students‟ speaking skills. 14
CHAPTER II. THE STUDY
The procedure of collecting data performs with using self-administered formatted
questionnaire, pre-test and post-test after 2-month duration of teaching at a selected class.
The study mainly focuses on strong and weak sides of using audio-visual materials to
improve students‟ speaking skills. Then the data is analyzed and summarized.
2.1. Participants
Participants in three phases: conducting survey questionnaire, pre-post test and pilot
teaching procedure are 40 students of class 8B1 at Hoang Dieu lower secondary school.
Those students are of different English ability. Most of them are not good at speaking,
although speaking is one important skill of four ones. My students often feel shy to speak
English and prefer a discussion in mother tongue. The reason probably comes from their
lack of vocabulary or the inflexible arrangement of words into sentences. My students
often feel difficult to express their thought in oral English. Their disorders of words easily
lead to the misunderstanding of the content or the wrong grammatical mistakes. The fear of
making mistakes makes them hesitant to speak. Their response in communication is also
not quick enough. In other word, it is difficult for them to speak English fluently. Besides,
the students‟ different backgrounds also affect the communication. The disparity of
English linguistic ability among 40 students in the class makes more contributions to the
problem. Another difficulty in teaching speaking at my lower secondary school is that the

pilot teaching periods for about 2 months. In these teaching periods, at class 8B1 with 40
students, the teacher uses the audio-visual materials to illustrate the speaking topics, and
the time allocated for each topic in every period is from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. After
pilot teaching process, the students take the post-test in the same way of taking the pre-test.
The real teaching process will help draw different results between beginning and the end of
process. Then, the teacher compares the differences and has useful assessments on the
effects of these materials in improving students‟ speaking skills.

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2.3. The procedure of collecting the data
2.3.1. Pre-test and post-test
The writer uses pre-test and post-test in this study. The test is formed to measure students‟
speaking skills. To give speaking scores, the writer put out 5 criteria, as follows:
- Pronunciation. This is an important element in measuring students‟ speaking skills. The
highest score is 2 and the lowest one is 0.
- The level of vocabulary: This is a criterion to assess students‟ diversity of vocabulary and
their ability of using words. The highest score is 2 and the lowest one is 0.
- Grammatical usage. It is an ability viewed by grammatical usage in the students‟
speaking. If the students are good, the highest score is 2 and if the students are bad in their
grammatical usage, they will be given by the lowest score 0.
- Fluency. It is a criterion of speaking fast and good in pronunciation. The highest score is
2 and the lowest is 0.
- Comprehension. That is about the logical content in students‟ speaking about the topic
and the ability to answer extra questions given by interviewer. The highest score is 2 and
the lowest is 0.
The measurement form consisted of pronunciation, the level of vocabulary, grammatical
usage, fluency and comprehension has been prepared before. The teacher interviews each
student according to the chosen topic. Then, the students‟ achievements of speaking test
are calculated.
2.3.2. Questionnaire

and the limitation of audio-visual materials in improving lower secondary students‟
speaking skills mentioned in the research question one and two will be discussed through
collective results of questionnaire. The next issue in the last research question, “Is it
effective to use audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary students‟ speaking
skills?”, will be confirmed by the comparative result from pre-post test.
The questionnaire for students (appendix A) consists of eight items, which are related to
the students‟ views on the varied aspects of the use of audio-visual materials in their
speaking classes. The responses of the 40 students to the questionnaire are as follows:
Research question 1
- What are the benefits of using audio-visual materials to improve lower secondary
students‟ speaking skills?
To get information for the research question 1, six questions are surveyed and shown in
form of tables as follows:
Table 1: Audio-visual materials are helpful for the students‟ speaking-practice
Question
Options
No of students
Percentage
Audio-visual materials are helpful
for your speaking-practice.

Strongly disagree
0
0%
Disagree
2
5%
Neutral
3
7.5%