5

List of tables, graphs and figures

Table 1: Evaluation of the effectiveness of model, picture presentation parts
in the speaking tasks.

Table 2: The suitability of the topics in the speaking tasks with students‟
needs and interests.

Table 3: Speaking skills gained by students after finishing learning textbook

Table 4: Teachers‟ ways of exploiting

Table 5: Factors affecting task adapting

Figure 1: Students‟ evaluation of speaking task forms in the textbook.

Figure 2: Teachers‟ evaluation of speaking task forms in the textbook

Figure 3: Students‟ evaluation of the difficulty level of speaking tasks in the
textbook.

Figure 4: Teachers‟ evaluation of the difficulty level of speaking tasks in the
textbook.

Figure 5: Students‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of different types of
speaking tasks.

Figure 6: Teachers‟ evaluation of the effectiveness of different types of
speaking tasks.

I.1.2. Adaptation speaking tasks is necessary: 14
I.1.3. Purpose of adapting speaking tasks 16
I.1.4. Techniques of adapting tasks for teaching speaking: 17
I.1.4.1. Adaptation as addition 17
I.1.4.2. Adaptation as change: 19
I.1.5. Factors affecting adaptation process: 20
I.1.5.1. Speaking task evaluation 21
I.1.5.2. Learner factor: 22
I.2. Speaking skill 24
8

I.2.1. The nature of language skills 24
I.2.2. The importance of teaching speaking 25
I.2.3. Communication and classroom communication 26
I.2.4. Problem with speaking 27
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 33
II.1.Research setting 33
II.1.1.An overview of the research site 33
II.1.2. Description of the teachers of English in Yen Bai Ethnic
Boarding High School. 33
II.1.3. The students at Yen Bai Ethnic Boarding High School 34
II.1.4. The materials of teaching and learning 34
II.2. The subject 35
II.3. The Instrument: 36
II.4. Procedure: 38
CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION AND
RECOMMENDATION 41
III.1. Data analysis and discussions 41
III.1.1. Questionnaires for both teachers and students 41
III.1.1.1. Evaluation of the effectiveness of model, picture
10

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I.1. Rationale:
Vietnam is in the open-door period, moreover, from the November
2006, has become a member of WTO, and so, English is getting more and
more essential to Vietnamese people.
Being aware of this, Vietnamese students in general and students from
Yen Bai Ethnic Boarding High School have tried hard to study English
better and better. However, English teaching and learning have not been as
effective as we expected. One of the reasons for those, according to many
teachers and students of English, is that the textbook “English 10” (the old
version), which is available for teaching and learning, is not always updated,
realistic, and appropriate to the context of an open-door policy and a market
economy, even not interesting enough to keep teachers and learners active

speaking teaching and learning more effective and communicative.
I.3. Research questions:
- What are the teachers and students‟ evaluation and evaluation an
attitudes towards the speaking tasks in “English 10” (the old version)?
- What techniques should be used to adapt of adapting speaking tasks
in English 10 for the 10 grade students in Yen Bai ethnic boarding high
school?
I.4. Research method
In order to carry out this study, which is a survey research, a
combination of different data collection instruments are use to ensure the
reliability of the collected information as well as the accuracy and
practicality of the study. To begin with, data was collected via from survey
questionnaires completed done by students and teachers in Yen Bai Ethnic
Boarding High School. The writer, then, worked with the data by combining
different methods like analyzing, synthesizing, comparing, etc. in order to
draw out important findings.
12

In addition, five classes were chosen at random. Each class was asked
to discuss five questions in 15-20 minutes before giving the answers. The
monitors then collected the answers from the members in their classes and
noted down the most common ones. These answers were then reported to the
writer in the post-discussion interview.
I.5. Scope of the study:
The study is limited to the data obtained from the survey
questionnaires on the students and teacher‟s evaluation of the speaking tasks
used for the 10
th
grade students on “English 10” (the old version). Besides,
they tended to find out their attitudes toward speaking task adaptation. The

Part III: Conclusion.
14

PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1. ADAPTATION
I.1.1. Definition of adaptation:
Many teachers of English as a foreign language have recognized the
importance of adaptation and there are a number of definitions of adaptation
given by different scholars.
According to Madsen and Bowen (1978), adaptation is the action of
employing “one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing,
expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or
modifying cultural/situational content”.
From Tomlinson‟s point of view (1998), adaptation is referred to
“reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”. Another author,
Elli (1986:47) considered adaptation the process of “ retaining, rejecting, re-
ordering and modification”.
More or less, most of the scholars‟ viewpoints, which I base my thesis
on, agree on some kinds of change and addition when mentioning
“adaptation”.
I.1.2. Adaptation speaking tasks is necessary:
There are always sound practical reasons for adaptation tasks in order

creative dialogue between teachers and tasks.
16

McDonough and Shaw (cited in Brian Tomlinson, 2004:178) give out
lists of reasons for adaptation of which are related to speaking task
adaptation:
1. Not enough speaking coverage in general.
2. Not enough practice of information points of particular difficulty to
these learners.
3. The communicative focus means that information is presented
unsystematically.
4. Subject matter inappropriate for learners of this age and intellectual
level.
5. Photographs and other illustrative for speaking not culturally
acceptable.
6. Amount of tasks too great/too little to cover in the time allocated to
lesson.
7. Too much or too little variety in the activities.
8. Accompanying tests needed.
The list implies that tasks are limited in that they do not provide many
opportunities for real communication; instead they simply provide practice
of linguistic structures. This is also the fact that in many speaking tasks that
needs adapting. The needs for task adaptation will be further discussed in the
next part dealing with the purposes for adaptation.
I.1.3. Purpose of adapting speaking tasks
Cunningsworth (cited in Ian McGrath: 2002) suggests the two most
frequently cited purposes for adaptation as follows:
17

1. To make the tasks more suitable for the circumstances in which it is

quantitative change in the tasks. For example, a task may practice a
particular topic point by asking the learner to complete a paragraph with the
missing information. The course book may have provided ten sentences for
this treatment, but the teacher may value this type of activity for her
particular class and adapt the course book by adding five more sentences
with the missing verbs.
Another form of adaptation which is quite among teachers is
supplementation. According to Ian Mc Grath (2002:80)
“Supplementation, which means no more than “adding something
new”, stems primarily from the recognition of a deficit: it is an attempt to
bridge the gap between a course book and an official syllabus (or statement
of aims), or a course book and the demands of a public examination, or a
course book and student‟s needs”
We can supplement a course book in one of two ways:
+ By utilizing items, such as tasks, texts or activities, from another
published source: a course book, a supplementary skill book, a book of
practice tasks or a teacher‟s resource book
+ By devising our own tasks; this may include the exploitation of
authentic visual or textual items.
The main difference between extension and supplementation is that
extension means “more of the same”. If the course books contains only one
19

short task to practice a grammar point which your students find particularly
difficult and you devise more items of the same type as the original task, this
is extension. If you give them another task from another source or make up
another task yourself, this is supplementation. The distinction is not just
terminological; when we extend a task we can be fairly sure that we are
staying true to the design of the original material and will be contributing to
the goals that underpin this material; when we supplement, especially when

This last question calls for a description of the linguistic intention
behind an activity or exercise (e.g. “to provide practice in the use of past-
tense question” or “to provide practice in eliciting information about
someone‟s past”)
b- Foci and forms of change:
One of the reasons given above for adaptation was to maintain learner
interest by varying what might otherwise be a rather repetitive diet. The
problem of “the textbook straitjacket” and some flexible responses to this are
described by Tice (1992:23):
“Vary the means of testing comprehension by introducing prediction tasks,
nonlinguistic tasks such as ordering or selecting pictures or note taking ”
I.1.5. Factors affecting adaptation process:
At the moment, the process of task adaptation is, in the great majority
of cases, left in the teacher‟s hands, and it is largely based simply on their
intuition and experience. However, having assessed the importance of task
adaptation as probably the most relevant and useful link between the reality
of the language classroom and the research findings, there is obviously a
great need to develop further such adaptation process and put into practice
21

those theories and ideas in adaptation more systemic manner, particularly as
far as the published tasks are concerned.
There are obviously many factors affecting the process of adaptation.
For the purpose of the study, only some factors are presented here.
I.1.5.1. Speaking task evaluation:
Adaptation process, indeed, raises form the fact of the published tasks
and the learners‟ needs. Tasks evaluation, therefore, is vital in the process of
adapting. In the process of evaluating tasks, we can find out what should be
adapted to suit our objectives.
Tasks evaluation is a broad area to cover. There are so many factors in

Research has for decades stressed the importance of the learner‟s role
in the language process; many areas of research since the 1970s have
explored and described extensively the advantages of learner involvement in
program design, methodology, task adaptation and selection (Clark, 1989,
cited in Brain Tomlinson, 2004).
However, learners are traditionally left with a rather passive role inn
the classroom particularly as far as the adapting tasks are concerned.
According to Brain Tomlinson (2004:74), “the process of adaptation is based
on an initial evaluation, which should be carried out by learners”
In the list of the key features in task adaptation, Tomlinson also takes
the “learner-centered” as the first one. In his opinion, there is a large amount
23

of literature on learner- centered approaches in principles. However, there
are very few language teaching and learning tasks are truly learner-centered
in the sense that their aims are the development of the learner‟s awareness,
of the learning process, linguistic empowerment and therefore learning
independence. The tasks should put learners at the centre of the learning
process and make them the main input providers ( hence the ones who adapt
tasks), whereas teachers and/or tasks should present the facilitators of
language learning and should provide a mere stimulus, a starting point, for
language expose as well as for different approaches. Tasks, should,
therefore, be written to facilitate adaptation, which should be left mainly in
the hand of learners.
According to some authors like Mathew (1991), Cunningsworth
(1995) and McDonough and Shaw (1993) (cited in Ian McGrath: 2002:19),
these are the learners factors affecting the process of adapting and selecting
tasks:
+ Age range
+ Proficiency level in the target language (and homogeneity within the

Of the four skills, speaking plays an essential role. Byrne (1991:9)
proves that this oral skill in communication is complementary. If one man is
good at speaking skill, other skills will be much supported.
To sum up, all the above skills are important for learners. Whenever
they acquire those skills they can have confidence in speaking and using a
25

foreign language. But it should be emphasized that speaking skill can never
be separated with other skills (listening, reading and writing). All of them
are integrated and supportive to each other.
I.2.2. The importance of teaching speaking
It is observed that many Vietnamese teachers of English are good at
teaching vocabulary and grammar in order to translate texts and to prepare
students for examination. However, organizing lessons to practice speaking
English can be a big challenge for both teachers and students. Many teachers
worldwide have to teach mainly grammar and vocabulary because these
areas are tested in examinations. This means that speaking is a neglected
language skill in many classrooms. Students may have a good knowledge of
grammar and a wide range of vocabulary, they can use this knowledge to
pass the examinations, but they find it difficult to speak English in the real-
life situation.
A classroom is not only a place where we learn about the rules of
language. It is also a place where students can practice using the language in
a supportive environment. As a result, we, teachers, have to try to speed up
this process. This means that teachers have to introduce new language and
help students practice it often.
Teachers need to use lots of interesting ways to motivate students to
speak and improve their speaking ability. Teachers not only given them new
words and tell them how to put words together correctly but also give them
opportunities to use and practice the language they have learnt. Also,

27

- Participants are often a large group in which not everyone is facing
the speakers are interested in what they say except for the teacher.
- Language from the teachers or tapes is closely adapted to learners‟
level. All speech is as accurate as possible and usually in complete
sentences. Learners are often corrected if their speech deviates from
standard forms. Problems in communicating meaning are often solved
by translation.
Oral practice in English classes as shown above by Pattison might
remain unnatural. In the classroom, since the teacher takes over what to
teach in the confined time available, the students can hardly be fully free to
decide what they will say, why, to whom, how and with what result
However, oral practice in English classroom does not mean that the
learners‟ communication skills are impossibly matured. English teachers
who take account of communication as the goal of foreign language teaching
can select, organize, adapt, design oral tasks that have more characteristics
of oral communication outside the classroom. In order to make speaking
tasks in class more like communication in real life, it is necessary to bear in
mind that speaking ability can be developed under four circumstances:
1. The learners opt for what they want to say by giving them a list of
different situations or topics.
2. The type of drills in which the learners respond mechanically without
thinking about what they are saying is left out.
3. More attention is paid to fluency than accuracy. No interruption with
corrections is made.
I.2.4. Problem with speaking
28

Brown (1994:256) classifies the characteristics of spoken language

The textbook - “English10” (the old version) - has had remarkable
contribution to English teaching and learning at Vietnam upper secondary
schools over more than two decades. The textbook is a course developed
from a situational syllabus which teaches the language that occurs in the
situations. The content of language teaching is a collection of real or
imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. Throughout the
activities, learners are encouraged to learn by actively participating in four
language skills. All the practice, activities and exercises in this book are
designed to helped learners to improve their communicative competence,
especially speaking skills. However, it has become outdated and English
teaching and learning seems not to make much progress in using it to
communicate practically and efficiently in the context of an open-door
policy and a market economy by the Vietnamese government. This old
textbook was proved to lack flexibility, adaptability and linkage and reveals
many shortcomings, especially in the speaking tasks. Speaking tasks can be
reviewed in terms of relevant methodology, task design, layout and the
content of knowledge
In the first place, on the methodology, these speaking tasks are tasks
based on the old structural, grammar-translation method that focus on
grammatical items and translation, English structures were selected, graded
and presented and students were to practice those structures by doing a great
deal of meaningless, uncommunicative drill. It is too difficult for them to
30

participate into the speaking tasks actively when these tasks are built
according to grammatical structures of the language. So, what the students
attempt to do is to attend class, listen to the teacher‟s explanation, take notes
and memorize everything. The concept of learner autonomy or learner
independence seems to be very new. That gives students‟ passive learning
habits and remains the lecturer-oriented or teacher-centered language