MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITYNGUYỄN THỊ ÁNH HỒNG
SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE
THE 10TH GRADERS' SPEAKING SKILL
MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
NGHE AN, 2014
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
NGUYỄN THỊ ÁNH HỒNG

SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE
THE 10TH GRADERS' SPEAKING SKILL
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Code: 60.14.01.11
MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
Supervisor: TRAN BA TIEN, Ph.D.
Nghe An, 2014
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work. The data and
findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not
been published elsewhere.
Author
Nguyen Thi Anh Hong
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

speaking skill is improved. Most of the students said that they like these
techniques. They became braver and felt more confident to speak and
express their feeling. Based on the findings, the writer also made some
recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities in class. As a
result, games, video and role play are highly recommended as effective
activities in the improvement of students’ speaking.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Pages
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENT iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi
LIST OF FIGURES vii
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Rationale of the study 1
1.2. Scope of the study 2
1.3. The aims of the study 2
1.4. Research questions 3
1.5. Method and procedure of the research 3
1.6. Design of the study 3
Chapter 2
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5
2.1. Communicative language teaching 5
2.1.1. What is meant by communication? 5
2.1.2. Communicative language teaching 5
2.1.3. Communicative Competence - The desired goal of CLT 7
2.1.4. The necessity of teaching and learning speaking skill in a

4.1.2. Questionnaire for teachers 40
4.2. Post-task questionnaire for students 43
4.2.1. Analyzing result of post-survey questionnaire 43
4.3. Analyzing results of classroom observations 47
4.3.1. From the experimental teaching observation 47
4.3.2. From the teacher observation 48
4.4. Problem in speaking lessons when use three stimulating activities:
games, video and role play 51
4.5. The obstacles during the use of three stimulating activities: games,
video and role play in speaking class 51
4.6. Discussion 51
4.6.1. Difficulties from the teachers and students 51
4.6.2. Solutions to improving 10th graders’ speaking skill 56
4.7. Summary 58
Chapter 5
CONCLUSION 59
5.1. Summary of the study 59
5.2. Recommendations on how to use three stimulating activities in class.60
5.2.1. For the teacher 60
5.2.2. For the administrator 63
5.3. Limitation of the study 64
5.4. Suggestions for further research 64
REFERENCES 65
APPENDIX
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
% : Percent
CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
EFL : English as Foreign Language
MOET : Ministry of education and training

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
Language education, especially foreign language teaching and learning, is a
compulsory in every country. With the development of the market economy and the
globalization trend, learning foreign languages has become not only an interest but
also a great demand for most people in Viet Nam.
Since 2006, the Ministry of Education and Training(MOET) has introduced
the new English textbook to high school students throughout the country. In general,
these new textbooks achieved the goal of teaching English through a communicative
approach. Each unit contains four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing,
with various interesting topics relevant to the age of students. The new textbooks
have many advantages; however, both the teachers and students face a lot of
challenges in the process of working with the new English textbooks. It seems that
they do not fulfill the requirements of the new textbooks at all.
More ever, one of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at
school is that of training students to be communicatively competent. “The aims of
foreign language instruction, especially English language instruction, is commonly
defined in terms of four essential skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking, of
which speaking is becoming the most important aspect in developing one's
communicative competence (Moore, 1992, p.9).
Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of
verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts.” (Chaney,1998, p.13). In
any second language teaching and learning, speaking is always believed to be the
most vital skill. Learning a target language makes no sense if you can not
communicate in it successfully.
However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning
English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not come
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To suggest some recommendations how to use three stimulating activities:
games, video, role play to enhance students in speaking skill and develop
communicative skill.
1.4. Research questions
1. What are the difficulties encountered by the English teachers and the 10th
graders in teaching and learning English speaking skill at Le Viet Thuat high
school?
2. How to use three stimulating activities: games, video and role play to
overcome these difficulties?
1.5. Method and procedure of the research
A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were used for this
research. Two survey questionnaires were used to collect data for the study.
The first survey questionnaire was carried out on 107 10th graders from 3
classes at Le Viet Thuat high school.
The second one is carried out on 9 teachers of Le Viet Thuat high school.
1.6. Design of the study
Chapter I:Introduction: consists of the rationale, the aims, the method and
design of the study. The research questions are also mentioned in this part.
Chapter II: Literature review gives the theoretical background of CLT,
speaking skill and stimulating activities.
Chapter III: Presents the use of stimulating activities to improve the 10th
graders' speaking skill at Le Viet Thuat high school. It provides the current situation
of teaching and learning English speaking skill at Le Viet Thuat high school and a
research on the use of stimulating activities. It gives research methodology which
consists of research questions and participants of the study. It also gives research
instruments, data collection procedures, technique for analyzing data.
Chapter IV: Provides discusses the findings of the study, data analysis and
findings through an analysis of all data collected by means of classroom
observation, post-survey questionnaire and individual interviews. In this chapter, the
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(Thompson, 2003, p. 10).There are two related aspects that we should consider when
talking about definition of communication is “social” and “interaction”.
2.1.2. Communicative language teaching
The history of language learning and teaching methods has experienced
many changes with many approaches, such as Grammar - Translation Method,
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Reading Method, Audio lingualism, and Affective - Humanistic Approach and,
etc. CLT is the latest influence on teaching methodology which has been put forth
around the world as a new or innovative approach to teach English as a second or
foreign language. CLT appeared in the late 1960s due to the changes in the British
language teaching tradition. Until then, situational language teaching remained the
major approach in British approach to teaching. The need for communicative
proficiency rather than mere mastery of structures made scholars advocate this
view of language teaching.
*David Nunan’s definition of CLT:
CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities
involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks and using language that
is meaningful to learners. Objectives reflect the need of the learners: they include
functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learners’ role is as a negotiator
and integrator. The teachers’ role is as a facilitator of the communication process.
Materials promote communicative language use; they are task - based and authentic.
(David Nunan, 1989, p. 194)
*Characteristics of CLT:
CLT has six features for most modern approaches and methods, which are
learner - centered teaching, cooperative learning, interactive learning, whole -
language education, content - centered education and task - based learning. Besides,
Littlewood (1981, p. 1) states: “one of the most characteristic features of
communicative language teaching is that it pays a systematic attention to functional
as well as structural aspects of language”. For other theorists, communicative
language teaching means using procedures where learners work in pairs or groups

goal of language teaching. That is to help students use language appropriately in
real communication. Rivers (1981, p. 15) and those who work with foreign
language teaching in U.S tend to define communicative competence as simply
linguistic interaction in the target language: “The ability to function in a truly
communicative setting; that is in a spontaneous transaction involving one or more
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other persons”. People who work in ESL, on the other hand, tend to use
communicative competence in Hymes’ sense. In his view, a person who acquires
communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use
with respect to
• Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible.
• Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the
means of implementation available.
• Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate,
happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and
evaluated)
• Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually
performed and what its doing entails.
A more recent but related analysis of communicative competence is found in
Canale and Swain (1980), which identified four dimensions of communicative
competence: Grammatical competence, Socio linguistic competence, Discourse
competence and Strategic competence.
To sum up, communicative competence is the ability to use the language
correctly, appropriately in any particular circumstances of communication. It is the
goal of language teaching and it makes CLT different in scope and status from any
other approaches.
2.1.4. The necessity of teaching and learning speaking skill in a Communicative Class
Speaking is fundamental to human communication. Just think of all the
different conversations we have in one day and compare that with how much
written communication we do in one day. Which do we do more of? In our daily

using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in
the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe
the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation.
2.1.5. Nature of communicative language teaching
Communicative language teaching means little more than an integration of
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grammatical and functional teaching. Littlewood (1981, p. 1) states, “One of the
most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays
systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language”.
Communicative language teaching stresses the importance of providing the
learners with opportunities to use English for communicative purposes and attempts
to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching.
2.1.6. The techniques of communicative language teaching
The techniques of communicative language teaching are described by features.
Nunan (1991a, p. 279) gives five features to characterize CLT:
• An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the
target language.
• The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
• The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on
language but also on the learning process itself.
• An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important
contributing elements to classroom learning.
• An attempt to link classroom language teaching with language
activation outside the classroom.
According to Richard and Rogers(1986, p. 170), communicative principles can
be applied to the teaching of any skills and at any levels. Because of the wide
variety of classroom activities and exercise types discussed in the literature on
communicative language teaching, description of typical classroom procedures used
in a lesson based on CLT principle is not feasible. Savignon (1984) discusses
techniques and class management procedures associated with a number of CLT

speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal
and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”. According to other researchers
such as Brown (1994), Burn and Joyce (1997), speaking is “an interactive process
of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing
information”. In a related study, Bygate (1987) had a detailed definition which
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states that “speaking is the skill by which learners are most frequently judged and
through which they make and lose friends. It is the vehicle par excellence of social
solidarity, social ranking, of professional advancement and of business. It is also the
medium through which much language is learned”.
2.2.2. The nature of speaking
It is obvious that speaking is the key to communication and seems to be the
vital skill in comparison with reading, listening and writing. Everywhere people
speak to each other to exchange attitudes, cultural values, etc. Without it
communication will become difficult to proceed and our world will become as
silent as a grave. Therefore, classroom activities aiming at developing learners'
ability to express themselves through speech are considered an important
component in a language school curriculum.
There have been many scholars discussing the nature of speaking. To Brown
(1994), Burn and Joyce, (1997), speaking is an interactive process of constructing
meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information; Its form
and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the
participants themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment, and
the purposes for speaking; it is often spontaneous open ended and evolving.
However, speaking is not always unpredictable. Language functions that tend to
recur in certain discourse situations (declining an invitation, requesting time) can be
identified and charted. For example, when a salesman asks,“May I help you?”, the
expected discourse sequence include a statement of need, response to the need, offer
of appreciation, acknowledgements of appreciation, and a leave- taking exchange.
Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of

• Make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what you
are saying.
2.2.3. The role of speaking skill in communication approach
In my opinion, those who think the major objective of the students is reading
not speaking have ignored some obvious pedagogical facts:
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Firstly, people have the notion that learning English has something to do with
oral English. When one says some students are good at English, people will
naturally think he or she can speak English well.
Secondly, oral English can be very useful for the development of reading and
writing skills. Rivers points out: “When we read and write, we can call upon what
we know of the language orally”, (Rivers, 1968, p. 20). He goes on to say that there
must be a connection between reading and speaking. If the students are reading, and
then they are using their oral English, too. If a student has poor English, his reading
ability may also be poor. Similarly, Rivers (1968) argues that writing involves oral
ability as well.
2.2.4. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
There are some characteristics of a successful speaking activity which are
introduced by Ur (1996, p. 120) as follows.
+ Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the
activities is in fact occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious, but often most
time is taken up with teacher talk or pause.
+ Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority
of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contribution are fairly evenly
distributed.
+ Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested
in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to
contribute to achieving a task objective.
+ Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in
utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of acceptable