TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

INTRODUCTION
Vinh Cuu, which is one of the largest districts in Dong Nai Province, has
attracted a lot of foreign companies and factories. Many foreigners work in the
companies and factories need to use English to interact with their customers,
their workers and partners. In order to communicate to foreigners, to find good
jobs, many young people and students have to be good at speaking English . 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. In the first term of the school year 2015, all grade 10 students in Dong
Nai Province had to take communicative English tests with the four language
skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing. Therefore, English teachers
have the responsibility for training and helping their students to become good
communicative English users. In teaching the four language skills, we think that
speaking is the most important skill, but the teaching of speaking in my school
has not been effective in terms of communication.

STUDENTS’ LEARNING PROBLEMS
Many students in Tri An School are not good at oral communication in
English for a number of reasons: First, they have very few learning speaking
strategies because they are usually provided with grammar and language
structures which their teachers think that these structures are important for the
first and second term examinations. Second, they are very shy when they speak
out in front of the class because they are not usually trained to use English
communicatively. Finally, many tasks in the textbooks : English 10, English 11
and English 12 are not suitable for students’ learning needs.
As a teacher of English, I think that teaching English for “spoken
communication” is essential. However, my personal experience of its methods is

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.

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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

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 interaction and students have the opportunity to
acquire discourse skills. Willis also points out that the essential conditions for
effective language learning, such as exposure, use, and motivation. In agreement
with Willis, Nunan (1991) says that task-based learning views the learning
process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular
goals they serve. He also stresses the crucial role of communicative tasks in

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.

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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

• his/ her hobbies
• his/ her personalities
• why he/ she is interested in Math
• how much time he/ she spends on Maths every day
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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

• what makes him/ her a good friend
• what made him/ her successful
• what he/ she does in his/ her free time
Useful language:
His or her personalities:
Friendly, humorous, quick-witted, good-natured, helpful, honest, pleasant,
caring
How he or she won the prize:
Studious, intelligent, keenly interested in Mathematics, eager to learn, patient,
calm

Newly- designed Task
1. Role- playing:
Instruction:
Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue. Change the
roles when you have finished.
Journalist: Hello. Our guest today is Phuong, a student who has
won a gold medal in Physics. We can see you’re very excellent. So
Phuong, do you admire anybody?
Phuong: Yes, of course. That is my best friend. I so much admire

Journalist: What does he do in his free time?
Phuong: He plays sports with his friends. Sometimes he plays
rubikcube.
Journalist: After your share, I know how he has such a great
success. That’s all interesting. Thanks for your share. I hope to see you
and Long someday. Goodbye.
Phuong: Bye. See you soon.

Rationale: After the weaker students have already practised playing roles in
the dialogue, they can make questions with cues based on the dialogue. The
students work in pairs to make their own dialogue, using their own ideas. This
task is considered “a communicative task” because the students can exchange
real information. They use their own ideas to interact with each other. We
should help students practice playing roles with a model first, then they can
make their own dialogue. They are provided with opportunities to decide on
things in the dialogue and this is considered as simulation.

2. Making questions:

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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

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.
Name


characteristics?
How about his/ her personalities?
Why is he/ she interested in Maths?
Does he/ she spend all his/ her time

Personalities
Interest in Maths
Time he/ she spends on Maths

studying Maths?
What does he/ she do in his/ her free

Hobbies

time?

Part two: English 11 - Unit 3: A Party (Page 36)
Task 2 (Task from the textbook)
Work in pairs. Tell your partner about the party.

Newly-designed Task
1. Role- playing:
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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue.
Change the roles when you have finished.

TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

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.
Birthday party

Where

With some of friends

Who

By motorbikes

How

A very beautiful dress

What

A lot of people
Sing songs and eat candies,
birthday cakes
At nine o’clock

Were there……
What
What time

What time did it finish?

Part three: English 11- Unit 9: The Post Office (Page 104)
Task 3 (Task from the textbook)
Work in pairs. Imagine that one of you is a clerk at the post office and the other
is a customer, make a dialogue for each of the following situations.
1. You want to subscribe to the Lao dong Daily for a year and have the
newspaper delivered to your home every morning before 6.30. Your address is
67 Ngoc Ha Street, Hanoi.
2. Your best friend’s birthday is on 16th May. You want to use the Flower
Telegram Service provided by the post office to send her a greetings card and a
bunch of red roses on her birthday.

Newly- designed Task
1. Role- playing:
Instruction: Work in pairs to play roles in the dialogue.
Change the roles when you have finished.
Clerk: Good morning. Welcome to Thanh Ba post office.
Can I help you?
Thuy: Good morning. Well, I want to subscribe to the newspaper?
Clerk: Which newspapers do you want to subscribe to?
Thuy: Well, I want to subscribe to the Lao Dong Daily.
Clerk: How long have you used this service?
Thuy: For a year, please. Can you start tomorrow?
Clerk: Certainly. What’s your address?
Thuy: Well, my address is 67 Ngoc Ha Street, Hanoi.

11




Can………?
Which
How long
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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

67 Ngoc Ha Street, Hanoi.
Before 6.30
30.000 VND per month

What
Could
How much

Suggested Questions
Greetings
The Lao Dong Daily

Hi! Can I help you?
Which newspapers do you want to subscribe
to?

For a year

How long have you used this service?


Find out why some animals have become extinct.
We should consider this question “People kill animals for fur, skin and food.
People keep animals as pets. People hunt or capture animals for recreation or
entertainment.Which is the most important cause, in your opinion? Why?”
(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
It is the second time I have written this research paper, I expect that the
research will bring good results to me and other teachers in Tri An High School.
I strongly hope that communicative tasks in teaching speaking skills are not
only useful for students but also for teachers and my school.
Teaching speaking in a communicative way can be applied in all classes.
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
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TEACHING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS BY USING
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.

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.
Finally, I would be very thankful for any comments and suggestions
regarding possible improvements.

MẠCH THI THU NGA

Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. London: Longman.

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