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

LÊ ĐÌNH THẮNG IMPROVING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES – A PILOT CASE WITH 10
TH

GRADERS AT TRIỆU SƠN HIGH SCHOOL No 2

NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA
HOẠT ĐỘNG NGOẠI KHÓA – TRƢỜNG HỢP THÍ ĐIỂM VỚI HỌC
SINH LỚP 10 Ở TRƢỜNG THPT TRIỆU SƠN 2 M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
Hanoi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

i
DECLARATION

I, Lê Đình Thắng, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Improving English
speaking skills through extracurricular activities – a pilot case with 10
th

graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2” is the result of my own research in
the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at the
Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and that the thesis in whole or
in part has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or
tertiary institution.

August, 2014 Lê Đình Thắng ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the process of writing this thesis, I have been fortunate to receive
supports and assistance from a variety of people.
First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông, who allows me to draw fully
on his wisdom and experience in implementing this study. His guidance,
encouragement and invaluable detailed critical feedback have been most
generous.

The experiment with 10th graders re-asserts that extracurricular
activities are very useful for the students and the teachers of English in
teaching and learning English, especialy speaking skills. Students‟ speaking
skills have improved remarkably through their participation in extracurricular
activities.
Besides that, taking part in extracurricular activities has also helped
students to develop other skills such as: teamwork skills, skill of presenting in
front of large audience, etc. More importantly, students are more interested in
speaking lessons in class. This suggests that extracurricular activities like
these can be well integrated into the English teaching program at our own
school and the like, which definitely will benefit both teachers and students
alike.

iv

ABBREVIATIONS

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
M.A: Master of Arts
ECAs: Extracurricular activities
ECA: Extracurricular activity
MC: Master of Ceremony

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25
3.1. Findings from the students 25
3.1.1. From the evaluation forms 25
3.1.2. From interviews 26
3.2. Findings from the teachers 27
3.2.1. From their observation 27
3.2.2. From the discussion 28
3.3. Discussion 29
3.3.1. The organization of extracurricular activities to intensify students‟
participation in speaking activities in class 29
3.3.2. The effectiveness of extracurricular activities experimented at
school 30
3.3.3. The students‟ response on the organization of extracurricular
activities 31
3.4. Summary 31
PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 33
1. Conclusion 33
2. Recommendations on how to organize extracurricular activities 33
2.1. For the students 34
2.2. For the teachers 34
2.3. For the administrators 35
3. Limitations of the study 37

vii
4. Suggestions for further study 37
REFERENCES 38
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 III
APPENDIX 3 IV

grammatical structures or vocabulary, etc. Whatever reasons they may be, it is
the first target of the teachers to help their learners speak up in class, and
thereby, improve their speaking skills.

2
Another reason why the study was carried out is that I am the head of
the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union at the school. During the school
year I organize many extracurricular activities for students, so I believe that
using extracurricular activities for English practice is a good way to enhance
students‟ English skills, primarily speaking skills.
The above reasons have inspired me to conduct an action research on
“Improving English speaking skills through extracurricular activities – a
pilot case with 10
th
graders at Triệu Sơn High School No2” with the hope to
make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking
skills for 10
th
graders at this school.
2. Aims of the study
The action research was conducted in order to see how extracurricular
activities could help improve the speaking skills of 10
th
graders at Triệu Sơn
High School No2 before school-wide application.
3. Research questions
This action research simply addressed two questions:
1. What extracurricular activities concerning English can be suitable to and
organized for the 10
th

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. What are extracurricular activites?
Extracurricular activities are activities performed by students that fall
outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school or university education.
Extracurricular activities exist at all levels of education. Such activities are
generally voluntary as opposed to mandatory, non-paying, tend to be social or
philanthropic as opposed to scholastic, and involve others of the same age.
Extracurricular activities are the activities that we undertake which are
not a part of our school or work obligations. (Holloway, J.H. 1999.
Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success for Educational
Leadership, Princeton)
Extracurricular activities are part of informal education, which consists
of learning activities that are voluntary and self-directed, life-long, and
motivated mainly by intrinsic interests, curiosity, exploration, manipulation,
fantasy, task completion, and social interaction. Informal learning occurs in
an out-of-school setting and can be linear or non-linear and often is self-paced
and visual or object-oriented. It provides an experiential base and motivation
for further activity and learning.
Out of school hours learning look to extend and enrich the curriculum,
to tie such learning more closely to schooling objectives. They aim at
complimenting the work carried out during the normal school day.
Extracurricular activities are an integral part of life. Every child is able
to find one or more activities to broaden their education beyond the
classroom. They enhance the learning and development of students. While the
taught curriculum offers a broad range of experience and learning
opportunities we firmly feel that learning will be enhanced by offering the

5

provide the added benefit of close relationships with caring, principled adults
outside the home.
There are specific benefits that may result through participation in
extracurricular activities. Youth who are involved in organizations are more
likely to show leadership abilities and are more likely to become leaders,
compared to non-participants. One study showed that participants in
extracurricular activities were more willing to work on a difficult task to
completion without adult supervision, and more likely to voice their opinions
whether others agreed with them or not. One survey showed that membership
in extracurricular activities made a difference compared to nonmembers, in
terms of life skills. Involvement in such activities had a positive influence on
self-esteem and community service. (Andrei, L The importance of extra-
curricular activities Retrieved May 4
th
, 2014 from
www.armyacademy.ro/biblioteca/anuare/2004/a27.pdf )
The key points that will be made in this claim of fact are that students
involved in extracurricular activities receive better grades than those who are
not involved in extracurricular activities. In addition, activities improve the
overall student. Therefore, they help students to receive better grades by
teaching them character building lessons, teaching them lifelong skills, saving
some at risk students who would possibly drop out of school, and helping
students develop social skills.
1.3. Types of extracurricular activites
There are 3 types of extracurricular work with foreign languages: individual
work, group work and mass work. These 3 types of work are closely
connected with one another. (Andrei, L The importance of extra-curricular

7
activities Retrieved May 4

serve the purpose much better than a foreign language corner. This room
would contain reference material for teachers and pupils: syllabuses,
textbooks, dictionaries, literary and pedagogical works and in this way it
would become a workplace for teachers and pupils, at the same time
reflecting the results that have been achieved.
The teacher and the youth organizations should try to attract the
participants in group works into mass activities and thus transform the
temporary activities into permanent circles. Foreign language circles are the
main form of extracurricular activities. We distinguish between specialized
and combined circles.
The specialized circles concentrate their activity upon a definite task.
Thus there might be:
- Circles for improving pronunciation. This circle has a definite training
character. The pupils train themselves in correct pronunciation and intonation.
Mechanical aids are indispensable for this kind of work. Such aids may be a
phonograph with a set of records of English lessons, of intonation patterns,
reading of poetry and pupil‟s pronunciation.
- Reading circles where the pupils are trained in expressive reading,
extensive reading and the use of dictionaries, for junior forms we recommend
filmstrips accompanied by texts, for senior forms the reading of literary
fragments.
- Conversation circles serve the requirements of modern language
teaching, that is, the development of the pupils‟ speaking ability. The work in
this circle may consist of conversation on everyday topics, the description of
pictures, the recounting of a film or discussion of a filmstrip which has been
previously presented. Film strips are very efficient means of increasing the

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pupils‟ ability I speaking. As they can be shown in half-light, the pupils can
take down notes while the teacher is describing the events taking place, and

material. Such competitions are first carried out within a class, next within all
the classes of the same level, then within the school. As a last stage the best
pupils of several schools may participate in competitions presided over by a
jury, prizes being awarded to the winners.
In Vietnam context, the more common types of extracurricular
activities may include English speaking club, English singing contest, drama
club, English speech contest, or contest of retelling stories in English.
1.4. Prior studies related to extracurricular activities
In 2012, Reva, A carried out a study on “The Role of Extracurricular
Activities in Foreign Language Learning in University Settings”. (Retrieved
May 4
th
, 2014 from />2012-06-507/REVA-THESIS.pdf?sequence=3)
Based on the results of the study the following suggestions are
offered for language instructors and students on how to organize language-
related extracurricular activities:
1. Voluntary basis. Making extracurricular activities mandatory and
not giving students a chance to choose activities will likely lower students‟
motivation towards language learning.
2. Involving a larger number of students in different activities.
Providing students with a wide range of ECAs and more information
about them will help to attract more students towards ECA. In turn, an

11
increase in students‟ involvement will have a positive effect on their language
learning motivation.
3. Choosing age appropriate activities and materials. While this study
only surveyed university-based ECAs, further studies should clarify the
preferences for learners in different environments and from different age
groups (e.g., elementary school, high school, etc).

academic performance, attendance, gender, lunch status, and student
discipline compared to their non-participant peers. Secondly, this study
examined the impact extracurricular participation, attendance, gender, lunch
status, and discipline has on academic performance for rural students. These
three factors were then compared to determine the overall rank-order of
impact on academic performance.
This research focuses on the belief that extracurricular activities in
school play a vital role in academic achievement. Educational leaders are
experiencing tight budgets and are faced with tough decisions. The research
shows that extracurricular activities are predictors of academic achievement
and cannot be quickly dismissed as an easy budget cut. Participation in just
one extracurricular activity made a significant impact on academic
achievement.
1.5 Summary
To sum up, this chapter conceptualizes extracurricular activities, the
importance of extracurricular activities, and types of extracurricular activities
are discussed. Besides, a review of some previous research about ECAs are
also presented.
The following chapters will present the setting of study, the
investigation and data analysis under the light of the above-discussed
theoretical bases. 13
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research setting
2.1.1. An overview of Triệu Sơn High School No2
Triệu Sơn High School No2 is located in the West of Thanh Hoa.
Founded in 1968, Triệu Sơn High School No2 is one of the oldest as well as
the biggest schools in the area. At present, there are 26 classes with over 1000

At Triệu Sơn High School No2, English is one of the compulsory
subjects in the curriculum. The syllabus and the textbooks for English
including “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, “Tiếng Anh 12” are prescribed
by the Ministry of Education and Training.
The English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two
semesters with a total of 105 periods, 3 periods per week. Each period is 45
minutes long.
The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English
for grade 10th at Triệu Sơn High School No2 is “Tieng Anh 10” which was
designed following communicative approach. The textbook consists of 16
units with 5 parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking,
listening, writing and language focus in which a variety of exercises and tasks
was compiled for practice. Also, there exists a consolidate unit after every 3
units. The objective of these units is to examine how well the students have
achieved in the previous units.
2.1.4.2. The teaching and learning English speaking skills
It has been accepted that students‟ communicative ability is the proper
aim for language teaching. This makes teaching and learning speaking skills
seem to be an important part in any English course. Like many other high
schools in Vietnam, teaching and learning speaking skills at Triệu Sơn High

15
School are affected by some constraints such as large class sizes, students‟
unfamiliarity with CLT, students‟ low English proficiency, students‟ low
participation in class time. Normally, in a class at Triệu Sơn High School, a
number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and
active during the class while a majority of those with low English proficiency
are very passive. Besides, lack of training in teaching methods, especially
CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to access to new approach, which
makes the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging.

National University, Hanoi. The reason for this choice of participants is that
they are all in charge of 10
th
form classes at Triệu Sơn High School No2.
2.2.2. Procedures
The study strictly followed the steps. First, possible extracurricular
activities were designed based on the students‟ level of English and the
requirements of their English program in Grade 10, particularly the expected
outcomes of their speaking ability when they finish Grade 10. Then, the
designed activities were piloted with the selected groups of students.
Following are the activities piloted.
To overcome the problem, the researcher with collegues in English
group organized three extracurricular activities for students in the school year
in order to improve their speaking skills. The researcher planned three
extracurricular activities as follows.
The first extracurricular activity
Theme: Let’s explore English/ Explore English
1. Aims
- Push up the emulation movement of learning and teaching as well as
increase the quality of education within the school.
- Create a friendly and dynamic environment with various forms of study that
attracts students and brings them with interest in learning English.
- Enhance English skills, especially speaking skill for students.
2. Contents
2.1. Content of the competition
There are 5 parts
Part 1: Greeting
- Three teams take part in the first part respectively.