SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT SẦM SƠN

á

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

“ COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING FOR THE
10th FORM STUDENTS AT SAM SON HIGH SCHOOL”

Người thực hiện: Lê Quang Nguyên
Chức vụ: Giáo viên
SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực: Tiếng anh

THANH HÓA NĂM 2019

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CONTENTS
Page
I. INTRODUCTION
2
1. Reason for choosing the study......................................................................2
2. Aims of the study..........................................................................................2
3. Scope of the study.........................................................................................3
4. Methods of the study..................................................................................... 3
II. CONTENT
4
1. The theoretical basis......................................................................................4

1. Reasons for choosing the study
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is considered to be the most recent
and successful approach to language teaching in general and English teaching in
particular. Being a teacher of English for a while, I have good opportunities to
expose to CLT and implement it in some of my English classes taught at my school.
With the development and globalization of the world today, English is considered
as an important part as a means of international communication than ever.
Therefore, in some recent years, the goal of teaching English has changed a lot,
teacher has switched from grammatical teaching to communicative teaching to
promote oral skills in order to respond to the students’ needs for effective
communication.
However, for some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning
English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not come
up to the study aims. Despite many teachers’ efforts to supply students with
opportunities to develop their communicative skills, students didn’t pay much
attention to the lesson. Due to some exam reasons that affect to students in some
cases. How to teach and learn speaking effectively is still a challenging question to
both teachers and students at many high schools in Vietnam, and how to overcome
this is still a big matter. In most English class, teachers are mainly concern with
teaching the points in the exams that need cope with and find necessary to
encourage students’ participation. That’s the reason causing the students’ tiredness
and boredom. Most of students are sitting quietly and listening rather than acting.
As a result, they just develop their ability on grammar task rather than the
communicative one. In addition, in language learning, learners have to master four
skills in which speaking is the most essential one for the aim at communication.
Hence, a big problem here is how to develop students’ speaking ability is not an
easy work. Therefore, it is a necessity to find out some problems of that 10th form
students are facing with speaking classes and give some useful suggestions to help
students more succeed in speaking English.
All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired me to conduct a

 Investigating and inquiring the reality, collecting data of teaching
speaking to the 10th students at Sam Son high school.
 Statistical method and processing data from pre-task survey questionnaire
and post- task survey questionnaire.

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II. CONTENT
1. The theoretical basis
1.1. Communicative (speaking) skill and its importance
1.1.1. The definition of communication
Communication is an interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing and receiving, and processing information that gains the one
purpose. Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs,
including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical
environment and the purpose for communication.[1]
1.1.2. The importance of communicative skill among four language skills
Communication is one of the features that help us interact information, ideas,
and thoughts with other people. It is a thing that distinguished us from most if not
all, animals because it is the common way to convey ideas from one person to
another through language.
Of all the four skills, communication is the most important skill. However, it
is not until I have read the essay titled “Implementation of communicative language
teaching in Vietnam” written by Ngo Duy Phuc, I could have a complete picture of
this teaching approach.[2]
1.2. Overview of communicative language teaching
1.2.1. The definition of communicative language teaching
Communicative language teaching is a system of manipulating spoken words
to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear. Communicative language

1.2.3 Classroom language
When starting teaching, teachers should draw students the rules and
encourage students how to speak fluency without hesitance. It is one of the key
factors that lead to students’ success in speaking.
1.2.4. Classroom management
Instead of using the traditional ways, teacher may use other advancing ways
in teaching. Teacher may encourage students to speak only English, don’t use
native language, students may speak in pairs or in groups
2. The reality of the study
2. 1. The reality
There are totally 424 students at Sam Son high school in tenth classes from
10A1 to 10A10. The majority of high school students here enjoy education
program in which English is a compulsory subject since they were at primary
school. This means by the time they go to high school, they have at least 5 or more
years experience in English. The level of English for the 10th grade students is
targeted at pre-intermediate level through a few actually reaches the standard. As
their primary years were spent with the old text books and the grammar translation
method, most students are, to some extent, good at grammar, but bad at listening
and speaking the target language. They can do written exercises on English
grammar accurately but they can hardly communicate in English. Moreover,
students at Sam Son high school would prefer to pay much attention to
Mathematics, Physics, and Chemist rather than English. As a result, they either
keep silence all the time or less participates in the speaking activities. Furthermore,
students at Sam Son high school have a worse learning ability than those from
many other schools, which is justified by passing the entrance test with the low
marks required for admission of the school.
2.2. The results in researching the reality
I set the objectives of 85 students for my research. Most of students are active
in real-life, but they seem to be less active in their classes. Initially, I found that
most of my students had little interest in lessons with speaking because they are

1
2. The importance of speaking skill
42.
10.
15.
30 31.6 40
10
15
among four basic language skills
1
5
8
3. Students’ willingness to speak
31.
10.
55 57.9 30
10
English
6
5
4. Students’ opinion about
42.
10.
45 47.4 40
10
0
0
communicative language teaching
1
5

activities as well as to personal space and physical movement. It allows students to
converse with a large number of classmates and to have time to remember, rehearse
privately, reflect on, and make decisions about what they will say and hear. It
requires student to share, collect and understand information by speaking and
listening and then record the information in writing. The students can discuss just
about anything you think they are capable of discussing without having it in writing
at the moment they are speaking. In this way teacher wants students to practice low
pressure conversation, develop fluency, friendship, memory and cooperation.[7]
3.1.3. Word routes:

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This activity can make students feel more relaxed about expressing their
opinions among their own peer groups. It generates a lot of talking as students are
free to express whatever ideas they have known about the topic. It allows freedom
and flexibility to students develop confidence in their speaking and fluency skills as
they examine the twists and turns that different conversations can take on the same
subject.[3]
3.1.4. Daily activities in speaking:
In this activity, students give a detailed description of a process selected from
common daily activities. The purpose of the detailed account is to encourage the
students to use thematically related vocabulary and consider the stages involved in
carrying out the process described. The activity also brings everyday life into the
classroom, thereby making the lesson more entertaining. The timely provision of a
list of appropriate words and phrases motivates the students to enlarge their present
words.[3]
3.1.5. Information gap:
These are form of matching, in that participants match labels and pictures[9]
3.1.6. Word ping pong:


role of both the observer and the observed. Video analysis enhances student
involvement with error correction, document progress, and increases awareness of
identity in the target language. Self-observation has a positive impact on students’
decision making and promotes students initiative, self-confidence, growth, and
change. Increased self awareness enhances communication skills, self-assessment,
self-expression, critical thinking, and cross-cultural understanding.[3]
3.1.9. Role play
The terms role play, drama and simulation are sometimes used
interchangeably but can be differentiated. Role play can involve students playing
roles that they do not play in real life, such as dentists, while simulations can
involve students performing roles that they already play in real life or might be
likely to play, such as a customer at a restaurant. Dramas are normally scripted
performances, whereas in role plays and simulations, students come up with their
own words, although preparation is often useful.[9]
3.2. Sample techniques used in teaching speaking
3.2.1. The textbook
“Tieng Anh 10” textbook consists of sixteen units for two terms. Each unit
focuses on four different skills: reading, speaking, writing, and listening as well as
supply language elements such as: pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
Speaking lesson is the second one in each unit introduced just after reading
lesson. Therefore speaking lessons are under the tendency theme-based and taskbased approaches. In general, the textbook provides students with a variety of
topics and speaking activities with the aim at helping students improve their
speaking skill. To be more specific, some of these topics are of students’ interest
such as talking about one’s daily activities (Unit 1) or talking about modern
technology (Unit 5), or talking about different type of media (Unit 7) etc… Beside
that, there are some speaking topics that are unfamiliar and far from students’
background as talking about, talking about new kind of zoos (Unit 10) or talking
about the world cup. Therefore, an effective technique should be exploited to
motivate students in these speaking lessons.[4]

other groups to compare.
Task 2: Let students imagine they are journalists and interview each other in groups
- Ask one group to do the task as a model
Ss: Work in groups with some cues given below
(Greeting, date of birth, home, parents…)
SA: Hi! When were you born?
SB: I was born on August 18th 1991
SC: Where do you live?
SD: I live in TB city
....
- Go around listening to some groups and help them if needed
- Let some groups play in role as journalists and other answer the questions
- Ask some pairs to stand in front of the class and practise speaking
Other groups go on practising speaking
- Practise interviewing as a dialogue
A: Hello! I’m Huong
B: Hello! I’m Lan. Nice to meet you.
A: Could you tell me something about yourself and your parents?
B: Oh, yes! Please
- Others listen and write down some information they get
- Work in groups
A: Can you tell me something about Nam?
B: Yes, please

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A: Where is he from?
B: He’s from TB city
A: What does he do?

- .....
Have students tell the procedures in chronological order, either in pairs, in small
groups, or in front of the class. Draw students attention to the necessity of detail in
the construction. Add a list of possible words or phrases concerning the topic. For
example, the following infinitive phrases might all be used in constructing
- To save up money
- To design the form of the house

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- To buy things
- To load materials ....
Give the students the list of words that should be included in the stories after they
finish. The students can easily see the useful words and phrases that may have been
missing from their own accounts. This list is useful for enriching vocabulary
(particularly common words) and practicing grammar items (e.g. conjunction)[4]
Handouts:
Plans
Possible results
widen the road
Children have better learning conditions
and resurface the Cars and lorries can get to the village
 Raise
roads
Build a medical center
Villagers have a shorter ways to city
Build a football ground
Peoples’ health is looked after
Grow cash crops



Handout
Type
Film
Science fiction film
Cartoon
Horror film
Detective film
Thriller
Romantic comedy
War film
Action film
SA: I like science fiction films very much.
SB: I don't like cartoons very much.
SC: I don't like horror films at all.
Task 2: Find out what your friends feel about each kind of films.
- Give Ss some new words:
+ violent (adj): bạo lực
+ horrifying (adj) làm khiếp sợ
+ moving (adj): cảm động

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+ find + O + Adj
- Ask Ss to read the new words orally and individually
- Introduce Ss some expressions of agreement and disagreement.
+ Agreement:
+ Disagreement:

Then the teacher gives out one by one and asks students to tell what it is about. The
students raise their hands to describe the pictures and the teacher will write these
ideas on the board. Then the teacher states that they are some threats to the health
of the oceans. They are: using fishing net (picture 1); people place rubbish into

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water/ beaches (picture 2); explosives are used to catch fish and other sea animals
(picture 3); use pesticides (picture 4). The teacher requires students to discuss the
consequences that might occur and offer some possible solutions to these problems.
Samples:
What do you think of
How do you feel about
+ V- ing
What’s your opinion of
Well, I think...
In my opinion we should.....

Task2: - Give Ss some suggestions:
Threats, Consequences, Solutions
1. Beaches are filled with plastic bags.
- polluted water
- place plastic bags in proper dustbins
2.Whales are hunted for food.
- extinct/ disappear
- not hunt or sell whale products
3.Explosives are used to catch fish.
- a lot of fish died
- be banned.

SA : What lesson do you have at 7.15 on Tuesday?
SB: I have Maths
- Says : That is your timetable. What about Quan/s time table?
INTERVIEW FORM

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

What time does Quan have a Civic Education on Monday? ____________
What lesson does Quan have at 7.15 on Monday? ____________
What time does Quan have an Information Technology on Monday? ____________
What lesson does Quan have at 8.05 on Monday? ____________
What time does Quan have a Maths on Monday? ____________
What lesson does Quan have at 8.55 on Monday? ____________
What time does Quan have a Chemist on Tuesday? ____________
What lesson does Quan have at 9.55 on Monday? ____________

 UNIT 12: MUSIC
Type of technique: Information gap
Classroom management: Group work
Material: Handouts
Time: Ten minutes
Procedure:
Teacher provides handouts to students and asks them to find out the kind of

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Task 1: Answering questions based on the reading text.
- Introduce the situation: You are going to read what Ha Anh says about music.
- Give Ss some new words:
+ keep sb happy: make sb happy
+ cheer sb up: make sb happier/more cheerful
SA. She likes pop music.
SB. Because it keeps her happy.
SC. The Backstreet Boys.
SD. She listens to music all the time
Task 2: Asking and answering about music taste.
+ What kind of music do you like?
+ Why do you like it?
+ Who is your favorite singer/ musician?
+ What is your favorite song/piece of music?
+ When do you listen to music?
 UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD

 Unit 14: THE WORLD CUP
Type of games: Story telling
Class management: Group work
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:
The teacher divides the class into groups of eight students (two rows of tables). The
teacher asks students to work in groups to tell about the world cup winner. The
story may begin with the suggestion from the book. After the last student in each
group finishes the story, all groups are asked to tell their product in front of the
class.[4]
For example:
The teacher can begin: The first world cup was held in Uruguay
in 1930...
Student A may begin with the second world cup
Student B may begin with the third world cup
Student C may begin with the fourth world cup and so on
Q1. How many times has Italy won the trophy up to World Cup 2006?
Q2. Who was the captain of the French national football team in World Cup 2006?
Q3. What was the score of the World Cup 2006 final?

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Q4. Which team was the runner-up in the World Cup 2006?
Q5. Who was the head coach of the German team in World Cup 2006?
Q6. What nationality was the top scorer in World Cup 2006?
Q7. Who was the captain of the English national football team in World Cup 2006?
Q8. Who beat England in the World Cup 2006 quarter final?
Task 2:
- Ask Ss to read the information about 17 World Cup tournaments in the table.

5
1954
Switzerland
West Germany
Hungary
5-2
6
1958
Sweden
Brazil
Sweden
3-1
7
1962
Chile
Brazil
Czechoslovakia
4-2
8
1966
England
England
West Germany
4-1
9
1970
Mexico
Brazil
Italy
2-1

15
1994
The USA
Brazil*
Italy
3-0
16
1998
France
France
Brazil
2-0
17
2002 South Korea & Japan
Brazil
Germany
* Brazil won the game 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out.
S1: Where was the second World Cup held?
S2: It was held in Italy.
S3: Which teams played in the final match?
S4: Italy and Czechoslovakia
4. RESULTS AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
Table 2: Data collected from post- task survey questionnaire
Variable
A
B
C
D
Scale
Question

23.
2

8

8.4

5

5.2


2. Students’ participation in CLT
3. Students’ feelings after applying CLT
4. Students’ participation in speaking
lessons
5. Students’ evaluation on the use of
CLT
6. The effectiveness of the use of CLT
7. Reasons for ineffectiveness (openended question)
8. Students’ expectations of using CLT

7
5
8
0
7
1

79

0

89.
5
52.
6

1
0
1
6

5
4

56.
8

2
7

0

0

1
2

12.
6


When making a small comparison between the data collected from pre-task
survey questionnaire and post-task questionnaire, it is clear that the numbers of
students who are willing to join the speaking classes are surely with CLT classes
increase considerably. It has approved that the speaking classes are surely more
interesting and enjoyable with the use of CTL. CLT helps students more aware of
using English in speaking class. Therefore, it can not be denied that CLT brings
about a variety of great benefits to the users.
III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Conclusion
There is a tendency that Communicative Language Teaching is becoming
more and more popular in Vietnam. Despite of the fact that Vietnam had a strong
influence by traditional method in teaching English, I strongly believe that CLT can
be successfully implemented in foreseeable future. The essay written by Ngo Duy
Phuc is really meaningful and useful to me. It provides me deeper insights into
CLT, some ways to familiarize students with CLT, some tips to create an Englishonly and active environment, sequence to implement CLT under circumstance of
unfavorable language policies. In the future, his essay will be an excellent reference
and guidelines for me to carry on CLT in my own English classes. Among activities
affecting English learning, CLT is considered as the key that leads to nature and
accuracy in the communicative process. Therefore, CLT is a master concern to
many teachers and educators. With these benefits, it is no double that CLT can
enhance students’ motivation in speaking lessons. Besides, the study gives some

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suggested ways that teachers used effectively in speaking classes. It is helpful to
teachers as well as to learners in teaching and learning speaking skill. .
2. Recommendations
Because of the limitation of knowledge, time as well as experience, the study

10. Hanoi Publisher.
[6].
/>[7]. Bresnihan, B.(1992). How is at least as important as what the language
teacher, 16, 37-41
[7]. Goursuch, G.(1991, January 31). Working around students’ cultural traits.
Daily Yomiuri, p.9.
[9]. Lewis, G and Bedson, G. (1999). Games for Children. Oxford University
Press.

DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SKKN CỦA TÁC GIẢ ĐƯỢC SỞ GD&ĐT XẾP
LOẠI
1. “Some ways to teach modal verbs for the 10th grade at high school” . Xếp loại C
năm học 2005-2006
2. “Some effective methods to teach listening skill for the 10th grade at high school”
Xếp loại C năm học 2012-2013

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APPENDIXES
APPENDIX 1:
PRE- TASK QUESTIONNAIRE
Please circle your choice
Name…………………………………………Class………………..
1. How do you like learning English?
A. Very much
B. Much
C. Not much
D. Not at all
2. Among the four language skills (reading, listening, writing, and speaking) which

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APPENDIX 2:
POST- TASK QUESNIONNAIRE
Please circle to indicate your choice.
Name……………………………………………………Class…………
1. Do you like CLT given by your teacher during speaking lessons?
A. I like them very much
C. I do not like them at all
B. Yes, They are OK
D. I have no idea
2. What do you do while applying CLT?
A. Actively take part in CLT
B. Join CLT only when being ask by the teacher
C. Join the CLT only when feeling interested
D. Do not join
3. How do you feel after applying CLT?
A. Relaxed and motivated
B. Normal
C. Uncomfortable
4. Are you willing to speak during speaking lessons?
A. Yes, I am more motivated to speak
B. It depends on the speaking activities and CLT given
C. No, I feel unmotivated and reluctant to speak
5. In your opinion, is the use of CLT to motivate students to speak effectively?
A. Yes
B. No
If you choose yes, please answer question 6 and question 8, if no please
question 7