MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
------------

A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS IN
TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH MAJOR
STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,
Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2015


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
------------

A STUDY ON THE USE OF SITCOMS
IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO ENGLISH
MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR:


or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge
and belief, the thesis contains no material previously
published or written by another person except where due
reference is made in the thesis itself.

Date: 3/ 8 / 2015
Signature

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ABSTRACT
This study was set out to describe the implementation of using sitcom situation
in speaking class and explore how it influences on student’s motivation, language
proficiency.
The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches in methodology.
A questionnaire was sent to 35 students who were at different level of English
.Interview data was also collected with 6 students; in addition, observation was
conducted in some classes.
Results highlight the complexity of How does using sitcoms make an impact
on student’s motivation? And what are the benefits of using sitcoms in oral skills?
The researcher shows that sitcoms indeed are great and useful tool for English
learners and for teachers of English as well. Moreover, persuasive figures in this
study demonstrated the great improvement of student’s English listening and
speaking proficiency after learning with sitcoms. Both teacher and students found
that sitcoms brought them completely new English learning experiences and they
seem satisfied with the sitcoms used classes.
Based on the findings of the study, the research gave some discussions,
conclusions and some suggestions for the future research.


ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES

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Pages


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
S. W

: Stressed words

B. S. I .C : Stands for Before stress instruction class.
A. S. I. C : After stress instruction class

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o

: A symbol for unstressed word

0

: A symbol for stressed word


LIST OF TABLES

training students in ESP related scenarios and language, can offer a visual
reinforcement of the target language and can lower anxiety when practicing the
skill of listening”. At the workshop “ Short and sweet: using short films to promote
creativity and communication” , Kieran explores how short films can be used in the
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classroom, and how we use it to promote creativity , and both oral and written
communication by doing communicative activities based around a variety of short
films.
Moreover, in term of learner motivation with videos, a number of studies and
journals have shown that “video appear to be more interesting to students so that
they are likely to become actively involved in the lesson” (Chiang, 1996, 1997; Lin
& Fox, 199a; Lin, 2002a; Lo, 2004).
Stephen Ryan in his journal on “using films to develop learner motivation”
says that “Students will often express an interest in using movies as a medium for
language learning.”
Furthermore, psychologists say that a film is great when it reflects a person’s
own values. In another word, great films help us discover our personal values, when
you have a strong feeling while watching movies, you may see personal value
inside of you that movie is reflecting. Movies can teach you a lot about you self.
Sineta (1993) claims that “Films can be consciousness-raising tools; their stories
are personal mentors that lessen fear or illuminate the love, virtue, and wholeness
already present in our lives”.
It can be seen that, students will have a great motivation if they have chance
to study with films in class, and the teachers will have a very new and exciting
teaching experience as well comparing to using traditional textbooks.
It goes without saying that Film is one of the greatest authentic tools of
teaching English in class. Freda Mishan claims that “any teacher who has used a film
with learners will have felt the thrill of excitement in the class, the learners’

2. Motivation

“Interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class, persistence with the
learning task, as indicated by levels of attention or action for an extended duration;
and levels of concentration and enjoyment”
(Crookes & Schmidt, 1991)
3. Authentic materials

Materials designed for native speakers for real purposes rather than language
“invented” by linguistics and textbook writers (Baddock, 1996).
4. The input hypothesis.

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Which applies only to language acquisition and not to language learning, posits the
process that allows second language learners to move through the predictable
sequence of the acquisition of grammatical structures predicted by the natural order
hypothesis. According to the input hypothesis, second language learners require
comprehensible input, represented by i+1, to move from the current level of
acquisition, represented by i, to the next level of acquisition. Comprehensible input
is input that contains a structure that is “a little beyond” the current understanding—
with understanding defined as understanding of meaning rather than understanding
of form—of the language learner (Krashen, 1982).
5.

The affective filter hypothesis.

This hypothesis states that “language learning must take place in an environment
where learners are ‘off the defensive’ and the affective filter (anxiety) is low in

appealing proposition of language practitioners and learners alike”. Authentic
material, which provides a real world communication and real contexts in daily life,
is very suitable for language classrooms. Thanks to TV and Internet, authentic
material can be found easier than before. News, documentaries, talk show, reality
show, movies, drama series, etc., are such valuable authentic material.
Furthermore,

Omaggio – Hadley (1986) insisted that one of the important

principles of communicative language teaching is that authentic language should be
used in instruction whenever possible.
A comparative study of authentic video material and traditional curriculum
for teaching listening in U.S.A was conducted by Secules, Herron, and Tomasello
(1992) revealed that the video group demonstrated considerably greater listening
comprehension than the group without videos in results.
As students learn to enjoy watching video materials, they will eventually
seek out more of their own time watching for their own pleasure, and their English
will improve as a by-product of their enjoyment (Hwang, 2005; Katchen, 1996;
Krashen, 1997, cited in Hui – ying, Bai)
Using authentic materials is one of the mainstays of an imaginative and
motivating higher level course, and it benefits both students and teachers.
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Martinez (2000) said that “by using authentic materials in the classroom, even
when it is not an authentic situation, it still provides the learners with many
significant advantages” He also summarized several benefits of using authentic
materials. The first one is that by using authentic material, students are exposed to
real discourse. Secondly, authentic materials keep students informed about what is
happening in the world. Thirdly, as language change is reflected in the materials so

process model of L2 motivation, changing over time, and not as a static attribute in
other exitsting models of L2 motivation ( Donyei, 2005, p.83)

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(Adapted from Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning:
Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications. )
FIGURE 2.2. A Process Model of L2 Learning Motivation
There are 3 stages in a process model of L2 Learning Motivation, preactional
stage, actional stage and postactional stage. They are viewed in two dimensions:
Actions sequence and Motivational Influences. The action sequence was elaborated
by Dornyei and Otto (1998) as follows.
1. Preactional stage
First, motivation needs to be generated – the motivational dimension related
to this initial phase can be referred to as choice motivation, because the generated
motivation leads to the selection of the goal or task that the individual will pursue.
2. Actional stage
Second, the generated motivation needs to be actively maintained and
protected while the particular action lasts. This motivational dimension has been
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referred to as executive motivation, and it is particularly relevant to sustained
activities such as studying an L2, and especially to learning in classroom settings,
where students are exposed to a great number of distracting influences, such as offtask thoughts, irrelevant distractions from others, anxiety about the tasks, or
physical conditions that make it difficult to complete the task.
3. Postactional stage
There is a third phase following the completion of the action – termed
motivational retrospection – which concerns the learners’ retrospective evaluation

seen and heard in order to complete the task at hand. Video provides foreign
language learners insight into the culture of the target language, and allows for the
opportunity to question any non- verbal aspects of communication that they may
not be familiar with. Video can lead to such cross-cultural comparisons to be
made.”
By using sitcoms in class, students will be enthusiastic about a target culture
or to achieve native speakers ‘understanding of English. Learner can learn English
in the most comfortable and enjoyable way.
2.3.2 Sitcoms and humor in the language classroom.
Humor and laughter play important parts in our life and in the English
classes either. By exploiting sitcoms, humor will be a useful tool to help learners
overcome the psychology barrier in classes so they can freely and comfortably get
involved in activities given by teachers, because a positive environment in
classroom may be more effective and beneficial than a strict and serious one.
Thanks to its humorous nature, active watching sitcoms in the English lessons may
enhance and intensify student’s learning (Markéta Hlozková, 2013).
Moreover, when college students are asked to identify what makes a good
instructor, among the first characteristics noted is a sense of humor. Students often
remember their favorite instructors as being those who created a fun environment
and made them laugh. Fun is one of the five primary needs of humans alongside
survival, belonging, power, and freedom (Pollak and Freda, 1997). A survey of 923
college, high school, and junior high school students asked whether they preferred
instructors who used humor in the classroom. Results have shown that 84% of these
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students truly enjoyed instructors who used a regular to frequent amount of humor
(check, 1997).
The sitcom is a powerful means for teaching and learning English through
humor, in order to understand the sitcom, students have to learn about culture of the

well, one has to be able to think in that language. But, not all learners are
particularly lucky; they get a chance to spend some time to immerse themselves in
the culture of the English speaking country. By exploiting sitcoms in class, both
students and teachers can immerse in the culture for a certain amount of time.
Studying culture motivate students to study the target language as well as rendering
the study of the second language meaningful.
“Teaching English as culture means showing the students how grammar
and vocabulary express, construct and are a metaphor for the social and cultural
reality of an English-speaking world (Halliday, 1978; Kramsch, 1998), and how
idiomatic expressions say something about the general mindsets and beliefs of
native speakers of English (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)” (cited in language, culture,
and voice in the teaching of English as a foreign language; Claire Kramsch).
Moreover, Garza claims that “learning a language in isolation of its cultural roots
prevents one from becoming socialized into its contextual use. Knowledge of
linguistic structure alone does not carry with it any special insight into the
political, social, religious, or economic system”.
An English learner can master a large amount of vocabulary, and excellent
at English grammar, that can’t guarantee himself a good communication
performance, if he doesn’t know anything about the target culture.

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Learners can have a great opportunity to learn more about the culture of
English speaking country in sitcoms, which means, they know more about the
language. “The more we know about the culture of the language we are learning –
the better our understanding of that language will be” ( Bilsborough, “ sitcoms as a
Tool for ELT” ).
The fact is not all the text book contains the supportive materials for teaching
culture, to guide students to the real English speaking world, to motivate students to

Markéta Hlozková states that “thanks to watching sitcoms, learners of
English also realize that a casual dialogue does not insist on perfect fluent non –
interruptive utterances. By contrast, such conversations are full of repetition,
hesitation, pauses, overlaps, false starts and back- channels”.
Sitcoms are great sources and valuable authentic material of teaching
pragmatic in English class. Students can approach the right authentic English in the
most comfortable way.

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CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 Methodology
Based on the purpose of the research , describing the implementation of using
sitcom situation in speaking class and explore how it influences on student’s
motivation language proficiency . The methodology of the current study adopted
qualitative method and quantitative method . John (2006) clarifies that Qualitative
Research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do
and say. Whereas, quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things,
qualitative research refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics,
metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things.
Bawden (1990) defines qualitative data as studying the behavior of
individuals in all the complexity of their real-life situations. In contrast to
quantitative data, qualitative data does not simply count things, but is a way of
recording people's attitudes, feelings and behaviors in greater depth.
And the following research questions were guided by the aforementioned purpose:
1. How does using sitcoms make an impact on student’s motivation?
2. What are the benefits of using sitcoms in oral skills?
How do sitcoms increase student’s motivation?
How do they increase student’s oral skill?