TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.

INTRODUCTION
As an international language, English offers a source of benefits to young people.
First and foremost, English assists young people to acquire more knowledge. Indeed, more
and more materials namely books, lectures and videos as well are printed or constructive in
English. As a result, people with English proficiency tend to stand a chance of exploring
deeper anything without being prevented by language barrier. Secondly, speaking English
fluently is the best advantage for people who want to go abroad. They will have no
interference of language in communicating with foreigners. Besides, learning English will
help young people find good jobs. Almost all companies enquire employees to be
knowledgeable about some languages, especially English. The more fluently they speak
English, the more chance they will be offered in a good position with high salary. Therefore,
English plays an important role in our life.
Of course, more and more people want to use it as a means of communication at work,
in business and tourism. As a teacher, I am aware that English has been one of the
compulsory subjects in secondary schools and high schools in Vietnam. All grade 10
students in Dong Nai Province had to take communicative English tests with the four
language skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing in the first term of the school year
2015. Therefore, English teachers are trying their best to train and help their students to
become good communicative English users. In teaching the four language skills, we think
that speaking is the most difficult and important skill, but the teaching of speaking in my
school has not been really effective.

STUDENTS’ LEARNING PROBLEMS
In Tri An School, many students are not good at communicating in English for a
number of reasons: First, they have few learning speaking strategies because they are usually
provided with grammar and language structures which are thought to be important for the
examinations. Second, they are very shy when they speak out in front of the class because
they always feel nervous and afraid of making mistakes because they are worried if other

situation.
Nunan (1991) wrote, "Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a
conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do
not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom, they may then get frustrated and
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TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.

lose interest in learning the language. Our

responsibility is to improve students’ four

language skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing. I think speaking is the most
important skill for my students because the purpose of our English course is really to enable
our students to communicate effectively. In fact, if the appropriate communicative tasks or
activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun. The achievement
in learning speaking will increase students’ motivation.
In recent research, it is true that in a language class, it is necessary for the teacher to create a
positive classroom atmosphere so that he or she can encourage the students to communicate
with each other. By doing this, the students can express their ideas, feelings and opinions
without feeling afraid of making mistakes. Besides, the students can conduct communicative
tasks in an effective way. Many researchers emphasize the importance of teaching
conversations or role play to English language teaching.
Jack C. Richards emphasizes that communicative practice refers to activities where practice
in using language within a real communicative context is the focus, where real information is
exchanged, and where the language used is not totally predictable.
In agreement with Richards, Willis (1996) states that creating a low stress atmosphere and
using the language for real purposes are ways to get meaningful communication and through

others tell them and to make themselves fully understood to the others. In this way, students
will need to adjust to each other's contributions.
Improvising
The task should require both predictable and unpredictable communication. Real
conversation always involves unpredictability so an ability to improvise needs to be
practised. For example, an attempt to come to an agreement is unpredictable. There is no
requirement to actually reach an agreement, so the participants may develop the conversation
freely. On the other hand, they must exchange the information for an agreement to be
possible and cannot easily avoid asking questions.
Mixed- Ability
For mixed-ability courses, tasks should favour the production of contributions of all
kinds. They should allow both weak and strong participants to extend themselves to their full
ability. For strong participants, making themselves understood to students with less linguistic
ability is a useful skill. Opportunity and time must be available for candidates.
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TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.

(Roger Nunn - Kochi University, Japan)
In order to make the tasks more effective and relevant and appropriate for our students, I
often redesign the tasks to meet the students’ learning goals. Let’s have a look at the
following task design.

Part one: English 12 - Unit 2: Cultural Diversity (Page 23)
Task 2 (Task from the textbook)
Below are some typical features of American cultural. Work in pairs, discuss and
find out the corresponding features of Vietnamese culture.


Mary: That sounds surprising. When are groceries bought?
Thao: Uh, groceries are bought every day.
Mary: Which holidays are the most important in Vietnam?
Thao: Yeah, Tet or Lunar New Year is the most important in Vietnam.
Mary: It’s wonderful. I want to take part in this holiday.
Thao: Oh, I hope you are really interested in it. I feel excited when I talk to you.
Now, I have some things to do. Goodbye for now!
Mary: Bye. See you later.
Thao: Thank you.

2. Making questions:
Instruction: Work in pairs to make correct questions, using the word provided.
Then, ask your partner to answer the questions to make your own dialogue.
Generations

How many

Their old- aged parents

Who

Questions about age, marriage and income

Is it .......

Every day

When

Tet or Lunar New Year

Task 2 (Task from the textbook)
Work in pairs. Look at the information about the giant panda, tiger, rhino and
elephant, which are endangered animals. Ask and answer questions about them.

Newly-designed Task
1.

Role- playing:
Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue. Change the roles
when you have finished.
Ngoc: Hi! Hang.
Hang: Hello, Ngoc.
Ngoc: Well, you look nice today.
Hang: Thank you. You are, too.
Ngoc: Can you tell me something about the elephants which are now in danger?
Hang: Certainly, they live in small areas of India, Sri Lanka, China and Southest Asia

and the Sahara desert in Africa.
Ngoc: What is the population of elephants in the world?
Hang: Well, It’s about 700.000.
Ngoc: Oh, that’s really surprising. What is their height and their weight?
Hang: Their average height is 1.2 m to 1.8 m. every elephant can weigh about 1000 to
3000 kg
Ngoc: What is their main food?
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TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.


What

Life span
Reason for decline

How long
Why

Rationale: Encouraging students to practise making dialogue is a very necessary strategy
in teaching spoken communication because it helps students get information from others. We
do this in order to motivate students to ask and answer about their real life.

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TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.

Suggested Questions
Habitat
Population
Height and weight
Food
Life span
Reason for decline

Where do elephants live?
What is the population of elephants in the world?
What is their height and their weight?
What is their main food?

TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.

Thuy: Well, Buck was brought to the north area by some ugly hunters and had
to work as a good- puller.
Huyen: What’s then?
Thuy: Then, Buck met a generous man named John who saved his life.
However, Buck had left John and followed the call of the wild.
Huyen: Oh, it sounds attractive and meaningful.
Thuy: If you have time, read it.
Huyen: Sure. I hope we can love animals especiallydogs more and more
through novels like this.
Thuy: Oh, it’s too late. I have to go home. See you later.
Huyen: Bye. See you next time.

Rationale: Encouraging students to practise making dialogue is a very necessary strategy
in teaching spoken communication because it helps students get information from others. We
do this in order to motivate students to ask and answer about their real life.

2. Making questions:
Instruction: Work in pairs to make correct questions, using the word provided.
Then, ask your partner to answer the questions to make your own dialogue.
Reading books

Are you .............?

Novel

What


What is the name of the book which you have just
read?
Who wrote that novel?

The main character is “ Buck” Who is the main character?
Buck was brought to the north area
What is the theme?
by some ugly hunters and had to
work as a good- puller.

Part four: English 12- Unit 14: International Organizations (Page 156)
Task 2 (Task from the textbook)
Below is some brief information about two international organizations. Work in pairs. Ask
and answer questions about them.

Newly- designed Task
1.

Role- playing:
Instruction:
Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue. Change the roles when
you have finished.
Mai: Hello, Phuong. I’m preparing for my report about the UNICEF. Can you
give me some information about it?
Phuong: Oh, yes, of course. I’m very willing to help you.
Mai: When was UNICEF founded?
Phuong: It was founded in 1948.
Mai: What’s the date and the month?
Phuong: Ah, December 11th.
Mai: Where’s its headquater?

2. Making questions:
Instruction: Work in pairs to make correct questions, using the word provided.
Then, ask your partner to answer the questions to make your own dialogue.
In 1948

When

December 11th

What

New York city

Where

Anthony Lake
It’s an international organization to

Who

advocate for the protection of children rights
Firstly, it has been providing supports
and funds for the most disadvantaged children
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What
What


TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE


Before applying this
method
After applying this
method

17 students

9 students

10 students

8 students

11 students

17 students

12 A2 (33 students)

Less confident

Confident

More confident

Before applying this
method
After applying this
method

English 12- Unit 15: Women in society - Speaking - Task 3 (Page 166)
Discuss whether you agree or disagree with the following statement and give explanations.
“Married women should not go to work.” (Referential question).
The students will have opportunities to express their opinions,

exchange real

information with each other by deciding on the most important cause. This means that I am
successful in helping them to produce real communication.

CONCLUSION
Teaching English speaking skill by making use of communicative tasks can be applied
in all classes in my school. Teachers design communicative tasks in order for students to
improve their speaking skill. As a result, students can feel like speaking English more.
Moreover, their pronunciation will be improved clearly. The more they practice, the better
and more condident they become in their pronunciation and vocabulary. As for students and
teacher’s perspectives to teaching and learning grammar, this approach to teaching speaking
will change their thinking that the teachers only make use of all exercises in the textbook
without any improvements, but it is the teacher’s job to design communicative tasks or
activities in order to help students to achieve their communication goals of learning and
teaching.
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TEACHING GRADE 12 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING COMMUNICATIVE
TASKS.

This is the third time I have written this research paper. I realize that my students are
more confident and they practice more naturally when they express their idea before class. I
really expect that the research will bring good results to me and other teachers in Tri An


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