VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONALSTUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYÊ
̃
N THI
̣
HÔ
̀
NG VINH DEVELOPING SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS TO TEACH SPEAKING
SKILLS FOR FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT
PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY

PHT TRIN TI LIU B TR Đ DY K NĂNG NI CHO SINH
VIÊN NĂM THƯ
́
NHÂ
́
T CHUYÊN ANH TA
̣
I TRƯƠ
̀
NG
ĐA
̣

NG VINH

DEVELOPING SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS TO TEACH SPEAKING
SKILLS FOR FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT
PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY PHT TRIN TI LIU BÔ
̉
TRƠ
̣
ĐÊ
̉
DA
̣
Y KI
̃
NĂNG NO
́
I CHO SINH
VIÊN NĂM THƯ
́
NHÂ
́
T CHUYÊN ANH TA
̣
I TRƯƠ
̀
NG
ĐA

LIST OF TABLES viii
LIST OF CHARTS ix
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Scope of the study 3
3. Aims of the study 3
4. Significance of the study 3
5. Methods of the study 4
6. Design of the study 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. An overview of speaking skills and teaching speaking skills 5
1.1.1. Definition and characteristics of speaking skills and teaching
speaking skill 5
1.1.2. Principles for Teaching Speaking Skills 5
1.1.3. Structure output and communicative output speaking Activities 7
1.2. Materials Development in Language Teaching 8
1.2.1. Definition of Language Teaching and Learning Materials 8
1.2.2. Effective Language Teaching and Learning Materials 8
1.2.3. The Roles and Limitation of Textbooks 9
1.2.4. Textbook evaluation 10
1.2.4.1. Definition of textbook evaluation 10
1.2.4.2. Methods for textbook evaluation 11
1.2.4.3. Criteria for textbook evaluation 12
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1.3. Supplementary materials in teaching language skills 13
1.3.1. Definition of supplementary materials 14
1.3.2. Form and process of supplementation 15
1.4. Related study on supplementary materials 16

3.2.1. Students’ Difficulties in Learning Speaking Skills 34
3.2.2. Students and Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook
“Let’s Talk 1”’s Content. 37
3.2.3. Teachers and Students’ Attitudes and Preference of
Supplementary Materials 39
3.3. Recommendations 40
3.3.1. Supplementary Materials for Vocabulary and Speaking activities 41
3.3.2. Supplementary Materials for Grammar 41
3.3.3. Supplementary Materials for Pronunciation 42
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Conclusion 43
2. Limitations of the study 43
3. Suggestion for further research 45
REFERENCES 46
APPENDICES I
Appendix 1. Principles of teaching speaking skills I
Appendix 2. Checklist to identify gaps in a coursebook II
Appendix 3. Questionnaire for teachers VI
Appendix 4. Questionnaire for students (English version) VIII
Appendix 5. Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) XIII
Appendix 6. Student interviews XV
Appendix 7. Translation of student interviews XXIII
Appendix 8. Samples of supplementary materials XXX
:Master Degree
viii

LIST OF TABLES Table 1a. The detailed evaluation of the students and the teachers about the
speaking topics in the textbook “Let’s talk 1” 26
Table 1b. The detailed evaluation of the students and the teachers about the language
input in the textbook “Let’s talk 1” 27
Table 1c. The detailed evaluation of the students and the teachers about the
speaking activities in the textbook “Let’s talk 1” 28
Chart 8. Students’ and teachers’ preferences to the forms of supplementary
grammar materials 37
Chart 9. Students’ and teachers’ preferences to the forms of supplementary
pronunciation materials 38
Chart 10a. Students’ and teachers’ preferences to structure output speaking
activities 39
Chart 10b. Students’ and teachers’ preferences to communicative speaking
activities 39
1

PART A: INTRODUCTION This part of the thesis will be dedicated to introducing the basic principles of a
thesis including the rationale, the aims, the scopes and the significance of the study as well
as the research questions. It will also present the research method and the design of the
study.
1. Rationale
English has attained greater importance throughout the world in general and in
Vietnamese in particular. This worldwide expansion has increased the demand to acquire
good communication skills in English. That is the reason why the teaching and learning
English has been paid more attention recently in Vietnam. Of four major language skills,
the mastery of speaking skills in English is put on the first priority by many Vietnamese
learners. This is because the success of learners in language learning is often evaluated on
the improvement in their spoken language proficiency (Richards, 2006). In order to aid
teachers and learners in their teaching and learning speaking skills, there is a variety of
speaking course books available in the market. At English Division of PDU, the course
book ―Let‘s Talk 1‖ (by Leo Jones, 2002) has been used as a core textbook to teach
speaking skills for first year English Majors. However, this textbook has not been
undergone any official evaluation to test its relevance to the students‘ needs and interests.

supplementary reading and writing materials for first year English Majors, but there is no
research concerning speaking skills. This has inspired the author to conduct a research
entitled ―Developing supplementary materials to teach speaking skills for first year English
Majors at Phuong Dong University‖.

2. Scope of the Study
As this is only a small-sized scale study, it is only concerned with providing
necessary information to help teachers at PDU choose suitable supplementary materials for
first year English Majors in their speaking lessons of the second semester. The matter of
applying such materials in real teaching and examining their effectiveness is beyond the
scope of this small study. Furthermore, in this study, the course book ―Let‘s talk 1‖ is
evaluated in order to identify the gap between it and the students‘ needs. However, this
evaluation is only concerned with the content of the textbook. By the words ―contents‖, the
author means the language input, the speaking topics and the speaking activities. 3

3. Aims of the Study
Firstly, it is an attempt to figure out students‘ difficulties in their process of
learning speaking. Once the teachers realize the difficulties that their students have to face,
they can work out what should be selected as supplementary materials for their students.
Secondly, this study aims at examining the evaluation of the teachers and students towards
the course book ―Let‘s talk 1‖; then, based on that evaluation, the author hopes to identify
gaps between the course book and the needs of students. The last aim is investigating
teachers and students‘ attitudes as well as their preferences to the choice of supplementary
materials.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the study is designed to answer the
following questions:
(1) What are the difficulties of the first year English Majors at PDU when learning

background on which the whole study is based. Chapter 2 is Methodology, which briefly
presents the methodological framework of the study. It covers the setting, the subjects, the
instruments and procedure of data collection and data analysis. Chapter 3 presents data
analysis, findings, discussion and brings about some recommendations on how to select
effective supplementary materials to go with the course book ―Let‘s Talk 1‖. The final
part, Conclusion, which is not less important than the preceding ones, comes up with the
summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further study.
In conclusion, in this part, an overview of the study has been presented including
the rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the research questions and the significance
of the study. The research method employed by the researcher as well as the design of the
study is also addressed. The first chapter in the next part will devote to literature review in
order to provide a theoretical framework for the study. 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.An Overview of Speaking Skills
1.1.1. Definition of Speaking and Teaching Speaking Skills

language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintains
comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her
communicative competence‖ while ―accuracy focuses on creating correct examples of
language use.‖ Thus, it may not be too much to say one can speak fluently without
accuracy or vice versa, and accuracy as well as fluency is necessary for successful
communication.
In teaching speaking skills, various scholars (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997)
suggest a common approach adopted in speaking lessons which follows this sequence of
instruction: Presentation, Practice and Production. In line with this view, Burkart (1998)
states that teachers can help students develop their communicative efficiency by using a
balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output and
communicative output. In the view of Burkart, language input may be content-oriented
which focuses on different topics and information, or form-oriented which emphasizes on
appropriate ways of using the language. The amount of content-oriented or form-oriented
input given in a lesson depends on each teaching and learning context as well as on
students‘ competence levels. Structured output serves the role of a bridge between the
presentation and practice stage of a speaking lesson in which students are required to
produce controlled responses correctly using specific forms or structures introduced in the
presentation stage. Communicative output is the final stage whose purpose is learners
completing a task through communicative output activities. At this stage, unlike structure
output stage, accuracy is not a main consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the
messages. In summary, structured output activities are those focusing on developing
learners‘ accuracy while communicative output activities give students opportunities to
develop their language fluency. In the following section, the author will introduce some
popular speaking activities that can be used as either structured output or communicative
output activities.

1.1.3. Structure output and communicative output speaking Activities
A large number of existing speaking activities can be found in resources. However,
due to the limitation of this small study, some applicable ones will be introduced. The

wrong responses and no reason to expect the same answers or responses from different
individuals or different groups.
 Prepared talks: a popular kind of activity in which students make a presentation on a
topic of their own choice with or without agreement with the teacher. Such talks are not
designed for spontaneous conversation and more ―writing-like‖. Prepared talks
8

represent a defined and useful genre of speaking and if properly organized, can be
greatly interesting for both listeners and speakers.
In short, there are many authors discussing the issue of speaking activities in
language teaching and learning. A variety of speaking activities do exit and they can be
exploited effectively in different ways depending on particular teaching and learning
contexts. However, in this small study, the researcher only prefers to address those eight
speaking activities discussed above.

1.2. Materials Development in Language Teaching
1.2.1. Definition of Language Teaching and Learning Materials
It is widely acknowledged that language teaching and learning materials constitute
a key component in most foreign language courses. Language teaching and learning
material is defined by Tomlinson (1998, p.2) as ―anything which is used by teachers or
learners to facilitate the learning of a language‖. He also gives a list of various things which
can be considered materials such as cassettes, videos, CD-Roms, dictionaries, grammar
books, readers, workbooks or photocopied exercises, etc. In line with this definition, a more
elaborate description of materials was given by Ian McGrath (2002). This linguist describes
materials not in broad sense as Tomlinson, but only in terms of text materials:
Text materials include those that have been either specifically designed for
language learning and teaching (e.g. textbooks, worksheets, computer software);
authentic materials (e.g. off-air recordings, newspaper article) that have been
specially selected and explored for teaching purposes by the classroom teacher;
teacher-written materials; and learner-generated materials. (p.7)

is a core coursebook. According to McGrath (2002), the term ―coursebook‖ refers to a
textbook on which a course is based. Therefore, these two terms ―coursebook‖ and
―textbook‖ will be used interchangeably by the researcher in this minor thesis. The
following section addresses the roles and limitations of textbooks.

1.2.3. The Roles and Limitation of Textbooks
The undeniably important roles of textbooks have been discussed widely by many
linguists in different books and articles. For instance, Hutchinson & Torres (1994, p.135)
state that ―no teaching –learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant
textbook‖. Likewise, Sheldon (1988) concludes that ―textbooks represent the visible heart
of an ELT program‖. Furthermore, Schmidt, McKnight and Raizen (1997, cited in Kulm,
Roseman and Treistman, 1999) underline the dominant role of textbook saying textbook
makes ―the leap from intentions and plans to classroom activities, by making content
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available, organizing it, and setting out learning tasks in a form designed to be appealing to
students‖. Sharing similar views, Crawford (2002) states that it is not necessary for a
textbook to control all things teachers and learners do in the language classroom; however,
it can support them by giving the structure and predictability needed for acceptable and
suitable communicative activities. The learning content packaged professionally in a
textbook can help achieve teaching and learning purposes.
On the other hand, textbooks may have several potential limitations. Richards
(2005) argues that textbooks may deskill teachers in a way that teachers primarily follow
everything prepared in textbooks without any change or creativity. The researcher totally
agrees with Richards‘ (2005) opinion that no matter how important a textbook is in
language teaching and learning, it should only serve the supporting role rather than
dominating role. In order to ensure the facilitating role of textbooks, there is a necessity for
teacher to develop skills in evaluating, adapting as well as supplementing published
materials. These skills will also help teacher deal with another limitation of textbook,
namely the mismatch between a commercial textbook written for international markets and

is adopted in this thesis.
Reasons for textbook evaluation activities are also numerous and varied. One
of the major reasons is the need to adopt new coursebook. In other words, the
evaluation helps to select a relevant and appropriate textbook for a language course.
Another reason as Cunningsworth (1995) emphasizes is to identify particular strengths
and weaknesses in a coursebook which is already in use. Such activities, in turn, will let
teachers make optimum use of the textbook‘s strong points and strengthen the weaker
areas by adapting and substituting materials from other books. As the definition and
significance of textbook evaluation have been discussed, the researcher is now concerned
with the methods and criteria being followed in the process of evaluation.

1.2.4.2.Methods of Textbook Evaluation
In general, three basic methods can be discerned in the literature on textbook
evaluation. For convenience, McGrath (2002, p.25) refers them to the impressionistic, the
checklist, and the in-depth method. As indicated in their names, impressionistic analysis is
concerned to obtain a general impression of the material while the checklist and the in-
depth are two methods of close evaluation. As used in isolation each of these methods has
its limitations as well as its specific benefits. However, in the opinion of the researcher, the
checklist method triumphs over the others due to its numerous advantages, some of which
are clearly stated by McGrath (2002, p27) as following:
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 It is systematic, ensuring that all elements that are deemed to be important are
considered.
 It is cost effective, permitting a good deal of information to be recorded in a
relatively short space of time.
 The information is recorded in a convenient format, allowing for easy comparison
between competing sets of material.
 It is explicit, and, provided the categories are well understood by all involved in the
evaluation, offers a common framework for decision-making.


Since the nature of the teaching/learning environment may vary from contexts to
contexts, Sheldon (1988) emphasizes, ‗global list of criteria can never apply in most
local environments, without considerable evaluation‘ (p. 242). The researcher then can
base on these criteria to design her questionnaire to evaluate the content of the textbook
―Let‘s talk 1‖.

1.3. Supplementary Materials in Teaching Language Skills
1.3.1. Definition of Supplementary Materials
According to Tomlinson (1998), supplementary materials are such ―materials
designed to be used in addition to the core materials of a course. They are usually related to
the development of skills of reading, writing, listening or speaking rather than to the
learning of language items‖ (p.13). As discussed above, ―textbooks represent the visible
heart of an ELT program‖ (Sheldon, 1988); however, Ansary and Babaii (2002) argue that
―no textbook is perfect; therefore, teachers should have the option of assigning
supplementary materials based on their own specific needs in their own specific teaching
situation‖ (p.6). In line with this idea, Biemer (1992, p.25) claims that teachers must
realize that ―textbook is not the only tool in classroom, it is a tool to be used. It may be the
major tool, but there are other materials that can be used too‖.
The reasons for teachers to use other materials beside textbook have been identify
by McGrath (2002) as follows. Firstly, they wish to bridge the gap or mismatch between
textbook and official syllabus or public examination or students‘ needs. Secondly, teachers
use supplementation because they think that students need to expose a wide range of
textual materials or have more practice of particular kinds, and lastly teachers need to
supplement a coursebook in order to cater for various language competence levels or
different needs of specific individuals in a class. Another reason for using supplementary
materials is raised by Brown (1994, p.152), that is, to promote learners‘ motivation, which
is one of the key factors in learning. Furthermore, Richards (2005) underlines the
importance of supplementary materials by claiming that when a textbook has some
limitations, it should be modified or supplemented to help teachers use them more suitably

supplementary materials for a particular teaching and learning context. The second
supplementation way, using teacher-own designed materials, has its own benefits. In
case that the suitable published supplementary material that is available needs large-
scale adaptation, preparing their own materials is a better choice for teachers (McGrath,
2002). Moreover, teacher-prepared materials are likely to be more up-to-date and more
relevant to students‘ needs and interests than equivalent coursebook materials since
teacher know their own students well (Block, 1991, cited in McGrath, 2002). Despite
15

these merits of teacher-owned designed materials, the researcher of the present study
prefers supplementation using published materials. This preference lies on the
assumption that ―materials are best prepared by professionals and by publishing houses
which can ensure a high level of production‖ (Sheldon, 1988).
Concerning the process of choosing supplementary materials, McGrath (2002)
classifies two types namely syllabus driven process and concept driven process. The
former states that teachers choose or design suitable supplementary materials after they
have identified what they need to supplement. Furthermore, teachers choose materials
with a particular class or particular group of learners in mind. The latter states that
teachers choose some interesting materials accidentally with the hope that they can use
such materials as supplementation in their future teaching. Unlike syllabus driven
process, in concept driven process, teachers have no class or no learn groups in mind
when choosing materials. In this present study, the researcher follows syllabus driven
process.
In summary, the relevant literature for this small study has been presented. Firstly,
a variety of ideas on materials development have been viewed in order to provide
foundation knowledge to supplement the currently-used textbook ―Let‘s Talk1 ―. Secondly,
definitions and characteristic of speaking skill as well as the process of teaching speaking
skill have been discussed. Furthermore, two most important elements in speaking process,
fluency and accuracy, along with the speaking activities used to develop either fluency or
accuracy are also the concern of the literature review. The following section will devote the

(2007) which only stops at giving suggestions on how to choose suitable supplementary
reading materials, this study focuses on finding the effectiveness of using supplementary
materials in real teaching situation. The participants of this study are non-English
majors. This study‘s findings indicate the effectiveness of adopting supplementary
materials to enhance strategy use as well as learning outcome. It is then suggest that in
order to expand students‘ learning capacity, more and diverse materials should be used
to supplement the existing textbook in the listening and speaking course.
In summary, there are studies on development of supplementary materials;
nonetheless, little has been documented concerning the development of supplementary
speaking materials, especially in the context of Vietnam. This study fills this gap by
developing supplementary speaking materials for first year English Majors at Phuong
Dong University who are using the textbook ―Let‘s talk 1‖ in their speaking lessons.
More specifically, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the textbook and then from that
evaluation, the researcher hopes to figure out the mismatch between that textbook and
students‘ needs so that she can suggest ways to choose suitable supplementary materials to
be used in the speaking lessons.

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CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is covered with information about the context, the textbook in use, the
subject under investigation and then the research methods and the instruments are
followed. More importantly, data collection and data analysis procedures are presented.

2.1. Background to the Study
2.1.1. The Study Context
The study is conducted at Phuong Dong University, one of the most famous private
universities in Hanoi. In this university, Department of Foreign Language takes an
important position, especially English Division that has the most numbers of students