Vietnam National University, Hanoi
University of Languages and International Studies
Faculty of post- graduate studies
*****
HÁN THỊ VĨNH HÀ
Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to
improve the 11th form students’ speaking achievement at Dai
Mo upper-secondary school
Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ nói trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 11 nhằm
nâng cao khả năng nói cho học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Đại Mỗ
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: Methodology
HA NOI, 2014
Vietnam National University, Hanoi
University of Languages and International studies
Faculty of post- graduate studies
*****
HÁN THỊ VĨNH HÀ
Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to
improve the 11th form students’ speaking achievement at Dai
Mo upper-secondary school
Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ nói trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 11 nhằm
nâng cao khả năng nói cho học sinh lớp 11 trường THPT Đại Mỗ
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: Methodology
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof., PhD. Nguyễn Văn Độ
HA NOI, 2014
i
DECLARATION
I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Adapting speaking tasks in the text book Tieng Anh 11
to improve the 11th form students’ speaking achievement at Dai Mo upper-secondary school” is

helped students of low level to get more involved in speaking, as well as improve their language
accuracy, fluency and complexity. Oral tests together with survey questionnaire and observations
was the main instrument of data collection. They were delivered to 40 grade-11 students to
collect individual scores before and after each of the two cycles, their opinions about speaking
tasks in the textbook and their behaviors while doing speaking tasks. Based on the data, the
speaking tasks were adapted and speaking activities were implemented then pilot teaching was
employed to check their effectiveness. The results indicated that most of the adapted tasks
resulted in some clear improvement in the students’ participation and their language proficiency
without omitting available textbook tasks or overloaded supplemented materials. Finally, some
suggestions and implications for teaching speaking, task adaptation were offered to support
students’ speaking skills at Dai Mo upper-secondary school.
iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Table 1: The students’ motivation in learning English speaking
Table 2+3: The students’ opinions about English speaking skills in the textbook Tieng Anh 11
Table 4: The students’ general evaluation of their current speaking lessons
Table 5: The students’ participation in speaking lessons.
Table 6: Factors prevent the students from participating in speaking in the class.
Table 7: The students’ opinion about the way their teacher taught English speaking
Table 8: The students’ evaluation of their teacher’s task adaptation
Table 9: The students’ scores in the Pre-test.
Table 10: The students’ opinions about the vocabulary relating to the topics in the speaking tasks
Table 11+12: The students’ opinions about the topics of speaking tasks
Table 13+14: The students’ opinions about the speaking tasks
Table 15: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 15
Table 16: The students’ response to the adapted tasks for Unit 16
Table 17: The students’ scores in Post-test in cycle 1.
Table 18: The students’ scores in Post-test in cycle 2.
Figure 1: The students’ motivation in learning English speaking
Figure 2: The students’ opinions about the textbook’s topics in the textbook Tieng Anh 11

secondary school, class 11A1 in particular. By observing, I notice most of the students hesitate to
participate in English speaking tasks. Even as the teachers have managed to engage them in, their
talks show some problems of using accurate, fluent and complex language.
Some researchers have been particularly interested in the same situation in teaching
English skills and tried to improve it by adaptation (Phùng Thị Hoa Mơ, 2010; Nguyễn Thị
Trang, 2012). However, most of them concluded that poor textbooks and students’ low
motivation were the main reasons. Whereas the students in class 11A1 confirmed that they
wanted to speak English much more than reading, writing, grammar, and they found almost all
the topics interesting. Especially, to grant comparatively equal achievements among students
from different schools, a set of compulsory textbooks have been published. The textbooks have
several strong points, that is task-based contexts are available and communication practice is
carefully guided.
Considering their English scores at the beginning of the course, I realized that most of
them were of low level, some were better but no one was advanced. Therefore, I did a
preliminary research, searched the Internet and read ESL/EFL studies. I found that spoken
discourse has its own characteristics and, thus, the teaching must be distinctive. I wondered if I
could help them by providing them with more language input together with knowledge
background, and by adapting some speaking tasks in the textbook Tiếng Anh 11. I did hope that
these changes would help them to have such achievements as participating more in speaking
activities and producing somewhat more accurate, fluent and complex language.
2
All of these above have inspired me to conduct the study titled “Adapting speaking tasks
in the text book Tieng Anh 11 to improve the 11th form students’ speaking achievement at Dai
Mo upper-secondary school.”
2. Aims of the study
The study was designed to help the students of low levels in class 11A1 to participate
more in speaking activities and produce more accurate, fluent and complex language through the
adaptation of the textbook Tieng Anh 11.
The study is aimed:
1. To investigate the reasons why the English teacher at Dai Mo high school should adapt

writing, grammar, and they found almost all the topics interesting, though. What should be done?
Step 2- Preliminary investigation: I carried out the preliminary survey and did some
initial observations to find out how speaking tasks were managed, how often they took part in
speaking activities and how the language produced was. Also, I searched the Internet and read
academic studies on ESL and EFL.
Step 3- Hypothesis: By collecting and reviewing the baseline data, I came to the
hypothesis that the students’ speaking achievement was not high because they often encountered
problems associated with language and background knowledge due to their low English
speaking levels; and that the adaptation of some speaking tasks by ‘making accuracy-based
practice meaningful’ and ‘adapting fluency-based activities’ can help them improve their
participation, language accuracy and fluency.
Step 4- Intervention: My research had two circles.
First, the students were asked to take an oral test. The students’ scores were counted into
percentages by following students’ score intervals.
Second, I conducted Cycle 1: Before the new speaking lesson, I asked the students to
answer some questions to find out their opinions about the topic and speaking tasks in the coming
lesson. After collecting the results, the adapted tasks were delivered. I observed the class and
took notes the teaching-learning activities and the students’ behaviors. When the students
finished the tasks, I provided them with survey questionnaires for response to the adaptation.
Then, an oral test was delivered to the students. Data analysis, reflection and comparison were
4
done to investigate the students’ speaking improvement in terms of participation, language
accuracy and fluency.
Because the successful result was not reached yet, it was needed to do another cycle.
Final, Cycle 2 was conducted with the same procedure as that of cycle 1.
Though the students’ speaking achievement was not improved to advanced level, it was
accepted in this case. Therefore, no more cycle was conducted.
Step 5- Evaluation:
Before adaptation, the students’ scores showed their low speaking achievement because
of such problems as they did not have enough vocabulary, feeling shy when they spoke in front

6
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. An overview on the teaching of speaking
In order to help students to develop their English speaking ability we need insights about
the nature of spoken discourse, so we will be able to find a useful methodology to select and
design appropriate classroom activities.
1.1. The speaking
1.1.1. The role of spoken English
The mastery of English speaking skills plays a very important role for many foreign
language learners. Consequently, learners tend to evaluate their success in language learning as
well as the effectiveness of their English lessons basing on how well they feel they have
improved in their speaking ability or proficiency.
In addition, teachers and textbooks make use of a variety of approaches in the teaching of
oral skills, which shows that “ oral skills have hardly been neglected in EFL/ESL courses” .
Therefore, it is observed that “ how best to approach the teaching of oral skills has long been the
focus of methodological debate”, Richards (2009:21).
Reflecting on the textbook Tieng Anh 11, I think teacher can take a great deal of
advantages in methodology.
1.1.2. Nature of spoken discourse
According to McCarthy and Carter, 1997 (cited in Richards, 2009:21), it is recent
advances in discourse analysis that have revealed the nature of spoken discourse and its
differences from written discourse. Luoma, 2004 (cited in Richards, 2009:22) points out some of
the following features of spoken discourse:
 Conjoined short phrases and clauses
 May be planned or unplanned
 Employs more vague or generic words than written language
 Employs fixed phrases, fillers and hesitation markers
 Contains slips and errors reflecting on-line processing
7

8
Some main features are given by Richards (2009:29):
 It has a primarily information focus
 Linguistic accuracy is not always important
c. Talk as performance
This type of talk refers to public talk transmitting information in front of an audience.
According to Richards (2009:32), the main features of talks as performance are:
 It reflects predictable organization and sequencing
 Form and accuracy is important
1.1.4. Implications for teaching
a. Talk as interaction
Though mastering such skills is difficult and may not be the most important to most
students at school, I think they should practice a wide range of topics to present good images of
themselves in situations which call for interaction talks.
Two simple activities Richards use to practice topic management are “in the hot seat” and
“question time”. In the first activity, a student sits on a chair in front of the class and makes a
statement about something he or she did recently. The other members of the class have to ask
three or more questions about the topic which the student has to answer quickly. Then another
student takes the hot seat. With the activity called question time, before students begin a lesson
on a new theme, he prepares up to 15 questions related to the theme and put them on a handout.
First, he asks students around the class to answer the questions quickly. Then students practice
asking and answering the questions in pairs.
b. Talk as transaction
In terms of the level of linguistic accuracy that students achieve when carrying out tasks
as transaction, some scholars like Thornbury,1998 and Kumaravadivelu,1991 state that practicing
these tasks focuses on task accomplishment rather than grammatical practice and a gradual
modification of their language output over time takes on more and more target-like forms.
However, Higgs and Clifford, 1982 (cited in Richards 2009:37) claim that communication tasks
often develop fluency at the expense of accuracy. Richards (2009:39) recognizes that low-level
students often heavily rely on vocabulary and memorized chunks of language while carrying out

10
- The extent to which the materials in use train for public examinations
- The hours available for teaching
- The existence of institutional or departmental policies
- The physical constraints of the classroom
- Class size
- The resources available
- The cohesion that exists among English language teachers
- The status of teachers in the hierarchy
- The financial/contractual status of teachers
- The interest of management in continuing professional development
 Examination system
Examination system is a heavily constraining factor where examinations are considered
gatekeepers to higher education or good jobs. Teachers would be of high risk not to train students
for these.
1.2.2. Factors of teachers
Harmer, 1991 (cited in Hedge, 2000:26) identify teachers’ roles “as controller in eliciting
nationality words; as assessor of accuracy; as corrector of pronunciation; as organizer in giving
instructions for the pair work, initiating it, monitoring it, and organizing feedback; as prompter
while students are working together; and as resource if students need help”. All of these are
common to a wide range of classroom methods. Hedge (2000: 22-31) says that they can be seen
in lesson plans but only can the ability to manage activities and interactions put them in practice.
Only when teachers have competence in management of interaction can the mentioned roles
create beneficial conditions for language learning.
1.2.3. Factors of learners
Individual differences exist and play a significant role in language learning. However,
they are just the useful distinctions to classify them in order to have some possible implications
for teaching. Because there are not “certain attitudes, personality characteristics, emotional
disposition, and learning strategies that somehow create the generically ‘good language learner’”
(Hedge, 2000:24).

2.2.1. The need of task adaptation
No certain set of activities can ensure that different groups of students practice the
speaking and problems can be found around the activities. Hedge (2000:281-283) believes that
12
whenever a problem occurs, which leads to students’ failure, they can feel frustrated to perform
and they do not behave in them as the activities suggest they should. This usually obstacles the
possible contributions to speaking activities and presents limitations to the development of
English speaking ability. It suggests to us the need to create range and variety in language
activities to adapt to the teaching and learning context.
2.2.2. What is adaptation?
According to Tomlinson (1998: xi), adaptation is “making changes to materials in order to
improve them more suitable for a particular type of learner.” In the aspect of adaptation
techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix-xi) mentions adaptation as the action of employing
“one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing,
simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content.” Differently,
Stevick (1972), cited in Mc Donough and Shaw (1993: 83) emphasizes teachers’ role of bridging
a gap between materials and learners: “the teacher must satisfy the demand of the textbook, but in
ways that will be satisfying to those who learn from it.”
In brief, adaptation requires teachers to change and revise materials to make them more
accessible to the teaching context.
2.2.3. The purpose of adaptation
There are always some practical reasons for adapting materials in order to make
them as accessible and useful to learners as possible. However, reasons for adaptation have
varied and changed as the field has developed and views on language acquisition and teaching
practice have become better informed by research and experience. There are two most frequently
cited purposes for adaptation:
to make the material more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e. to
mould it to the needs and interests of learners, the teachers’ own capabilities and such constraints
as time, or as Mc Donough and Shaw (1993:85) put it: “to maximize the appropriateness of
teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to

communicative function, or the time sequencers that might be needed in telling a story”, all of
which have a conscious focus on language (Hedge, 2000:273).
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Hedge (2000:273-276) gives two suggestions:
 Contextualizing
Contextualized practice “aims to make clear the link between linguistic form and
communicative function”, which “means finding a situation in which a structure is commonly
used.” [ For the example of contextualizing, see appendix 6-1]
 Personalizing
Personalizing “the language enables students to express their own ideas, feelings,
preferences, and opinion”, which “makes the language more memorable”. To make it motivating,
students must be allowed to choose what they say in some degree so that they can “make use of
language resources in interpersonal situations”. [ For the example of personalizing, see appendix
6-2]
b. Adapting fluency-based activities
In textbooks, we can see a lot of available fluency-based activities. Making use most of
them and adapting some is what I choose to contribute to the development of students’ speaking
skills.
Hedge (2000:277-281) suggests three basic types of activities used for adaptation:
 Free discussion
In free discussion, students can cover a wide range of topics and practice strategies
required in interpersonal communication such as taking and holding turns, encouraging
responses, etc. However, more proficient or more confident students may dominate over anxious
ones, thus participation from all members of the group may not take place.
To overcome this, teachers need to support students with material that can focus the
discussion, provide content and linguistic resources. Reporting stage after taking note the
discussion accurately also makes students follow the arguments. In addition, goals should be
established. Group roles can ensure equality of opportunity for all group members. [ For the
example of group roles, see appendix 6-3]
 Role-play

GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education).
The students have three 45-minute periods of English a week, that is, 51 periods in term 1
and 54 periods in term 2. However, there are only seven speaking lessons in each term.
1.2. The learners
The study was carried out with the participation of 40 students of class 11A1. In general,
the students are at the age of 17. There are 16 girls and 24 boys. They all live in Nam Tu Liem
district. All of them have learnt English since they were at grade 3, but most of them are low-
level English speakers. Though they pay much attention to study English, their English is not
very good in general and their speaking ability is of low level in particular.
At the time of the study, the students were in their second term of the school year. The
second term began with Unit 9.
1.3. Speaking materials
The textbook Tieng Anh 11, edited by Prof. Hoang Van Van and written by Hoang Thi
Xuan Hoa, Dao Ngoc Loc, Vu Thi Loi, Do Tuan Minh and Nguyen Quoc Tuan, published by
Nha xuat ban giao duc, is a theme-based textbook, and a continuance of the textbooks Tieng Anh
10 . It is intended to provide students with thorough coverage of basic grammatical and lexical
items and language skills.
17
The textbook is used for grade-11 students. It consists of 16 units. Each unit has one
speaking lesson. All the speaking lessons in the textbook follow three stages of pre-speaking,
while-speaking and post-speaking. The speaking tasks are not too difficult with coherent stages.
They are intended to be suitable for all levels of students. However, they are beyond the students’
level in Dai Mo School.
2. Instrumentation and Procedures
The data collected from student-based evaluation and respond-based evaluation (Ellis,
1997: 39-40) helped conduct this mini action research. The former was to check whether the
speaking tasks are useful, based on the students’ attitudes to the speaking tasks. Thus, the data
was practical and reliable. Doing the later, the teacher had to see the actual outcomes by
examining not only the products but also the processes of the tasks.
Oral tests were utilized as the main data collection instruments, questionnaires and class