HOÀNG THỊ VÂN

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Hoàng Thị Vân

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION:
AN ACTION RESEARCH AT ANTHI HIGH SCHOOL
IN HUNG YEN PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

COURSE: 2016 – 2018

HANOI, 2018


VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Hoàng Thị Vân

USING COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
TO SUPPORT EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PRESENTATION:
AN ACTION RESEARCH AT ANTHI HIGH SCHOOL
IN HUNG YEN PROVINCE


thesis is indeed a collaborative effort. I would like to express my sincere
thanks to the many people who made it possible.
First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my M.A
thesis’s supervisor, Dr. Phạm Lan Anh for her kind consultation, invaluable
encouragement as well as thorough correction in the process of completion.
Without her helpful guidance, this study would not have been achieved.
Next, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and thanks to Mr.
Đặng Nguyên Giang and the staff of the Department of Foreign Languages,
Graduate Academy of Social Sciences for granting me the honor of writing
this thesis as well as their assistance and most valuable comments.
Specially, millions of my special thanks go to the teachers and students
of An Thi High School who participated in this study for their kind and
patient co-operation and encouragement. They helped provide me with
valuable data for the study so that I could have a better view of activities in
presentation task in English speaking classes at An Thi High School in Hung
Yen province.
Finally, I am deeply indebted to my family for their sympathy and
support during all the time I was studying for M.A degree at Graduate
Academy of Social Sciences. Without their unconditional love and sincere
contribution, I could not have overcome my difficulties and concentrated on
my studies.

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION BY AUTHOR ....................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... viii

2.6. Previous Studies ..................................................................................... 26
2.7. Summary ................................................................................................ 28
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY............................................................... 30
3.1. Research Design ..................................................................................... 30
3.1.1. Definitions of Action Research................................................................................ 30
3.3.2. Action Research Procedures ................................................................................... 33
3.2. The Context of the Study ....................................................................... 34
3.3. Participants ............................................................................................. 36
3.3.1. The Researcher- Teacher......................................................................................... 36
3.3.2. The Teachers.............................................................................................................. 36
3.3.3. The Students ............................................................................................................... 37
3.4. Procedures of the Current Study ............................................................ 38
3.4.1. Diagnosing (week 1-2) ............................................................................................. 39
3.4.2. Planning (before the beginning of week 3)............................................................ 39
3.4.3. Acting and Observing (from week 3 to week 16).................................................. 40
3.4.3.1. The Detailed Action Plan...................................................................................... 40
3.4.4. Reflecting (week 17- 18)........................................................................................... 41
3.5. Data Collection Instruments................................................................... 42
3.5.1. Diagnosing ................................................................................................................. 42
3.5.1.1. Survey Questionnaire for Teachers and Students ............................................. 42
3.5.1.2. English Speaking Test ........................................................................................... 44
iv


3.5.2. Acting and Observing ............................................................................................... 45
3.5.2.1. Lesson Plan............................................................................................................. 45
3.5.2.2. Speaking Observation Form. ............................................................................... 47
3.5.2.3. Students’ Opinion Form ....................................................................................... 48
3.6. Data Collection....................................................................................... 48
3.7. Data Analysis ......................................................................................... 48

APPENDIX 10: Unit 3: Music- Lesson: Speaking (English 10 New)..................XVIII

vi


ABSTRACT
This thesis has made attempts to examine: (1) the problems the students
of the 10th grade An Thi High School face in doing their oral English
presentation, (2) some kinds of communicative activities that can support the
students in doing oral presentation tasks. Specially, an action research project
was carried out with the participation of 40 students in Grade 10A1 at An Thi
High School in Hung Yen province. The study lasted 18 weeks and involved
some data instruments namely questionnaire, pre- test, observation, post-test.
The data collected in the initial stage showed that the obstacles of doing oral
presentation tasks mainly came from the teaching methods and the differences
of students’ English abilities, which resulted in differences in their attitude to
speaking lessons. An action plan of applying communicative classroom
activities was implemented. The data collected in the action stage pointed out
that the students’ doing oral presentation was improved and the positive
changes in their attitude toward speaking classes were also witnessed after the
intervention.

vii


LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1: A distinction between non- communicative activities

10


viii

63


LIST OF FIGURES & CHARTS
Page
Figure 1: Action Research Cycle

34

Chart 1: Category 1 of the Questionnaire for Teachers

51

Chart 2: Category 2 of the Questionnaire for Teachers

52

Chart 3: Category 3 of the Questionnaire for Teachers

53

Chart 4: Category 4 of the Questionnaire for Teachers

54

Chart 5: Category 1 of the Questionnaire for Students


EFL:

English as Foreign Language

ESL:

English as Second Language

L2:

Second Language

RQ:

Research Question

x


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

Rationale
Nowadays, in the era of the globalization and international exchange,

English is one of the most important means of communication and access to
information. In this context, the teaching and learning of English is more and
more necessary. English has become a compulsory subject at high school
throughout the country. Thanks to the innovation of new textbooks,
Vietnamese high schools now have a chance to get better access to

can help to motivate the students to solve their incompetence as mentioned
above, the researcher has decided to conduct the study on “Using
communicative classroom activities to support EFL students’ oral
presentation: An action research at An Thi High school in Hung Yen
province” to find out the solutions, and, to help improve the teaching and
learning of English at her hometown school.
1.2. Aims and Objectives of the Study
Aim: To find solutions for the problem that students have difficulty in
presenting in English.
Solution: developing communicative activities in the classroom with the
hope that those activities will support students to give out their oral
presentations effectively.
In order to achieve the aim, the objectives are as follows:
First of all, this study is conducted to identify the types of communicative
activities which can facilitate students’ oral presentation.
Secondly,

this

study

will

examine

the

effectiveness

of


Significance of the Study
Hopefully, the study will make a small contribution to the application

of communicative language teaching approaches in developing the students’
ability in doing oral presentation task at secondary school level in general and
at An Thi High School in Hung Yen in particular.
1.6.

Research Methods
The study is influenced by qualitative approach with the research

method of Action Research. Comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusions
are based on problem identification, planning, actual research, experience,
and discussions.
The study was firstly conducted in order to identify students’ initial
problems in English presentation tasks. It was also carried out to examine the
3


effectiveness of teachers’ techniques to improve students’ oral presentation.
A post-treatment questionnaire was given to analyze learners’ attitude
towards presentation tasks as well as teachers’ techniques in the EFL
speaking classes.
1.7.

Structure of the Study

The study consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1 – Introduction: The first chapter gives reasons for choosing


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The study investigates the effectiveness of using communicative
classroom activities to support the An Thi High School students’ oral
presentation. This chapter reviews the theories and literature relevant to the
study area. It is divided into 6 parts, namely:
Communicative Competence,
Communicative Language Teaching,
Communicative activities,
Oral presentation,
Classroom communicative activities to support oral presentation, and
Previous studies.
2.1. Communicative Competence
The term “communicative competence” is comprised of two words, the
combination of which means “competence to communicate”. This simple
lexico- semantic analysis uncovers the fact that the central word in the
syntagm

“communicative

competence”

is

the

word

“competence”.


notion

of

competence.

Namely,

Hymes

(1972)

defined

communicative competence not only as an inherent grammatical competence
but also as the ability to use grammatical competence in a variety of
communicative situations, thus bringing the sociolinguistic perspective into
Chomsky’s linguistic view of competence.
Recent

theoretical

and

empirical

research

on


which can help to overcome the lack in a particular area of language
knowledge but on the use of all types of communication strategies. As to the
authors of the CEFR, the use of strategies can be compared with the
application of meta-cognitive principles (planning, achieving, controlling and
correcting) on different forms of language activity: reception, interaction,
production and meditating.
2.2. Communicative Language Teaching
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach which
proposes that language learning should be done in a meaningful setting with
authentic language as the input. It is an umbrella term which consists of an
array of methods and techniques (Parrish, 2004). According to Lindsay and
Knight (2006, p.20), this approach is based on the view that language is learnt
in order to communicate effectively “in the world outside the classroom.” It
emphasizes on meaningful use of language for communication, rather than on
the form and structure; hence the term “real-life” communication in the
classroom (Brown, 2000).

Savignon (2001, p.13) describes CLT as the

“new”, “innovative” way of teaching English as a second or foreign language
as it deals with “the interactive nature of communication.” CLT puts an
importance on fluency and ability to communicate in a variety of settings and
in a variety of ways. Nguyen (2010, p.209) points out that “CLT may
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currently be considered and accepted as an inclusive approach to language
teaching, which encompasses various approaches and methods, motivations
for learning English, types of teachers and the needs of individual classrooms
and

2.3.1. Definition of Communicative Activities
According to CEFR (2001, pp. 73-93), communicative activities with
one or more interlocutors are generally undertaken by a language user in
pursuance of his or her needs in a given situation. In the educational domain,
communicative tasks may be helpful to distinguish between the tasks which
learners are required to tackle as language users and those in which they
engage as part of the language learning process itself.
According to Hammer (1991), communicative activities are those that
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give students the desire to communicate, involving them in a various use of
the language. Such activities are crucially important in a language classroom
since the students can do their best to use the language individually, arriving
at a degree of language autonomy. In other words, communicative activities
are those that can stimulate communicative competence in the learners.
Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to find out appropriate activities to
encourage students to use the language. In order to design these activities
effectively, the teacher needs further understanding of them. Accordingly, the
following section will discuss the characteristics and types of communicative
activities.
2.3.2. Characteristics of Communicative Activities
According to Harmer (1991), Communicative Activities are those that
give students involved desire and a purpose to communicate. Such activities
are very beneficial for students because they can do their best to use the target
language and arrive at the degree of proficiency in the end.
Nolasco & Athur (1993) characterized communicative activities with
some following characteristics. Firstly, they involve using language for a
purpose. Secondly, they create a desire to communicate. This means there
must be some kind of “gap” which may be information, opinion, or reason

No teacher intervention
No materials control

(Table 1: A distinction between non-communicative activities and
communicative ones)
Also, he affirms that information gap is essential in any communicative
activities because it provides learners with a purpose and a desire to
communicate. Traditional classroom exchanges in which both the speaker and
listener know the answer are not really communicative.
2.4. Oral Presentation
2.4.1. General Understanding of Oral Presentation.
The communicative approach to English teaching has been very
popular in many EFL college conversation classes. Having students give oral
presentations in front of the class is one of learner-centered activities that
have been widely included in teachers’ lesson plans to improve students’ oral
proficiency.

According to CEFR (2001, pp. 58- 65), oral production is one

of the productive activities in which the language user produces an oral text
received by an audience of one or more listeners. Spoken production is a
‘long turn,’ which may involve a short description or anecdote, or may imply
a longer, more formal presentation. Productive spoken activities have an
important function in many academic and professional fields (oral
10


presentations and reports) and particular social value is attached to them.
Judgments are made of what has been submitted in the fluency and
articulateness in speaking, especially when addressing an audience. Ability in

autonomous learners.
The communicative approach to English teaching has been very
popular in many EFL conversation classes. Having students give oral
presentations in front of the class is one of learner-centered activities that
have been widely included in teachers’ lesson plans to improve students’ oral
proficiency.
2.4.2. Skills/ Sub-skills Involved in Oral Presentation
From what mentioned above, oral presentation, the kind of sustained
monologue is one of the illustrative scales provided in the oral production
activities.
Describing experience concerns narration and description. It has a
relatively direct link between communicative functions and the language used
to express them.
Giving information is a new scale concerned with explaining
information to a recipient in a long turn. Although the recipient may well
interrupt to ask for repetition and clarification, the information is clearly
unidirectional; it is not an exchange.
Putting a case (e.g. in debate) describes the ability to sustain an
argument.
Public announcements are a very specialized way of passing important
information to a group of people, perhaps in a private capacity (e.g. at a
wedding), perhaps whilst organizing an event or outing or in the manner of air
cabin staff.
12


Addressing audiences involves giving a presentation or making a
speech at a public event, in a meeting, seminar or class. Whilst the talk is
clearly prepared it is not usually read word for word. After a presentation, it is
customary to take questions spontaneously, answering in a short monologue.