VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
  
BÙI THỊ ÁNH TUYẾT
M.A. MINOR THESIS
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO STIMULATE 10-FORM STUDENTS’
PRESENTATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS AT MARIE
CURIE HIGH SCHOOL, HAI PHONG
(Các hoạt động trong lớp học để khuyến khích khả năng trình bày tiếng Anh
của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Marie Curie, Hải Phòng)
Field: English teaching methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Cohort: MA 15
Supervisor: Lê Thế Nghiệp, M.A
Hanoi, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... ii
ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................................. iii
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1
1. RATIONALE ................................................................................................................. 1
2. OBJECTS OF STUDY ................................................................................................... 2
3. AIMS OF STUDY ........................................................................................................ 2
4. SCOPE OF STUDY ...................................................................................................... 2
5. METHODOLOGY OF STUDY .................................................................................... 3
6. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ........................................................................................ 3
7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................................. 7
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 7
1.1. SOME DEFINITIONS ................................................................................................ 7

2.6.2. Survey questionnaire for students ...................................................................... 27
2.7. Discussion of the findings ......................................................................................... 29
CHAPTER III: ...................................................................................................................... 31
3.1. Information sources ................................................................................................... 31
3.2. Activities in class ....................................................................................................... 32
3.3. Practical tips for teachers .......................................................................................... 41
PART III .............................................................................................................................. 44
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 44
1. Summary of the study .................................................................................................. 44
2. Limitations of the study ................................................................................................ 45
3. Suggestions for further study ....................................................................................... 45
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 46
APPENDIX 1 .......................................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 2 ....................................................................................................................... III
APPENDIX 3 ........................................................................................................................ V
ABSTRACT
This thesis is concerned with stimulating 10-form students’ presentation in English
speaking classroom. Specifically, a survey will be taken on teachers of English and 10-
form students at Marie Curie High school in Hai Phong city to consider how English
speaking lessons are conducted and how students respond to English speaking lessons. The
thesis also study students’ difficulties when participating in English speaking lessons. This
thesis also recommends some practical tips and typical classroom activities which were
applied by the author and suggested by teachers of English at Marie Curie High school to
improve quality of teaching and learning presentation in English.
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Le The Nghiep for his guidance
and inspiration while I was working on this study.
Research for this paper was supported by the Post-graduate Department - College of
Foreign Languages – Hanoi National University with encouragements and permissions.

English. Objectively, the importance of English in communication is increasingly
emphasized, while the present English teaching at Vietnam’s high schools seems to face
with an obstacle in improving learners’ communicative competence. According to
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the purpose of language teaching and learning
is to develop communicative competence in the target language. Littlewood also states:
“One of the most characteristic features of Communicative Language Teaching is that it
pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language”.
However, the traditional method applied at Vietnamese secondary schools does not comply
with the textbook at all. Most teachers focus on teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and
writing skills. They do not pay adequate attention to speaking and listening skills. As a
result, this leads to some problems. Learners can be good at written English but they have
difficulty in using it in oral communication. Besides, their English is not good enough to
use in real communicating situations. Moreover, teaching and learning conditions at
Vietnamese secondary schools are face with some drawbacks. A class of 45 to 50 learners
is not appropriate for language teaching and learning. Therefore, a suggested solution is
1
that teachers should apply suitable classroom activities to stimulate learners’ speaking
ability right from the beginning.
Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to the application of communicative
language teaching approach in developing the 10
th
form learners’ ability in presentation at
Vietnamese secondary schools in general and at Marie Curie high school in Haiphong in
particular.
2. OBJECTS OF STUDY
Due to actual English teaching and learning conditions, so far the most widely used
English textbooks at Vietnamese high schools have been applied to 7-year English course.
Thus, the subjects of the study will be the high school students who use 7-year English
textbooks. For the limitation of the study, it can only focus on the 10
th

and learning.
6. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Perhaps one of the obvious problems is the lack of students’ interest and active
participation in learning activities. Traditional methods of teaching in English classrooms
have focused on passive learning. This problem is probably caused by less exciting and
practical activities of teachers. The questions to be dealt with are:
How important is presentation to foreign language learning?
What should be done to stimulate the 10
th
form Marie Curie High school students in
presentation tasks in an English speaking class?
7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The study is intended to consist of three parts:
1. Part 1 – Introduction: give reasons for choosing the thesis, objects, aims and scope
of the study as well as the methodology of the study.
2. Part 2 – Development: will be divided into three chapters:
3
Chapter 1: Literature Review focus on some definitions of presentation, types of
presentation. Some factors that prevent students from presenting a topic and
communicative classroom activities are also mentioned as the basis of the thesis. Finally,
the thesis discuss the important of integrating skills, the relation between presentation and
other skills including reading, writing and listening.
Chapter 2: The study gives the data analysis from the survey of 10 teachers of
English and 100 students at Marie Curie High school to make the foundation for the
activities in chapter 3.
Chapter 3: indicates some typical activities and practical tips for teacher to
stimulate 10-form students’ presentation in an English speaking lesson and examples for
illustration.
3. Part 3 – Conclusion: summarizes the study, limitations of the study and suggestions
for further study.

tension and nervousness center on two basic task requirement of foreign language learning:
listening and speaking because both the skills can not be separated.
According to Horwitz et al. (1986: 127), there are three related performance anxieties: (1)
communication apprehension (CA); (2) test anxiety; (3) fear of negative evaluation. Due to
its emphasis on interaction, the construct of communication apprehension is also relevant
to the conceptualization of foreign language anxiety (McCroskey, 1977). The description
of these components will lay the foundations for the concept of second/foreign language
anxiety, providing an insight to comprehend the sources or causes it can originate from.
Communicative Apprehension (CA)
The speaking skill is so central to our thinking about language learning that when we refer
to speaking a language we often mean knowing a language. MacIntyre and Garder (1991)
points out that the skill which produces most anxiety is speaking. This anxiety comes in
part from a lack of confidence in our general linguistic knowledge but if only this factor
were involved, all skills would be affected equally. What distinguishes speaking is the
public nature of the skill, the embarrassment suffered from exposing our language
imperfections in front of others.
One of the most studied topics in the field of speech communication is the tendency on the
part of some people to avoid, and even, fear, communicating orally. Horwitz et al. (1986:
128) define communication apprehension (CA) as “a type of shyness characterized by fear
or anxiety about communicating with people”.
Communication anxiety may be specific to just a few settings (e.g., public speaking) or
may exist in most everyday communication situations, or may even be part of a general
anxiety trait that arises in many facets of an individual’s life (Fiedman, 1980). Learners’
personality traits such as shyness, quietness, and reticence are considered to frequently
precipitate CA. These feelings of shyness vary greatly from individual to individual, and
from situation to situation. McCroskey and Bond (1980) found seven factors that could
result in a quiet child (this can equally offer explanation of adult CA); (1) low intellectual
skills, (2) speech skill deficiencies, (3) voluntary social introversion, (4) social alienation,
8
(5) communication anxiety, (6) low social self-esteem, (7) ethnic/cultural divergence in

useful conceptual building blocks for a description of second/foreign language anxiety, it is
more than just the conglomeration of these three components. We conceive foreign
language anxiety as a distinct complex of self-perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors
related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language
learning process. What makes language learning a distinct and unique process is its
interaction with the concept of ‘self’.
1.2.2. Factors associated with Learner’s own sense of ‘self’ and ‘language classroom
environment’
As mentioned above, the language anxiety is related to three components. All the three
components are strongly linked with learners’ sense of ‘self’, as it is learners’ ‘self’ which
is at risk of failure or being negatively evaluated in any test-like situation or a situation
which requires communication in front of others. This risk to one’s sense of ‘self’
frequently occurs in a L2/FL classroom. This section reviews literature on language
anxiety related to learners’ sense of ‘self’ and ‘language classroom environment’.
Self perceptions
According to Horwitz et al. (1986: 128), perhaps no other field of study poses as much of a
threat to self-concept as language study does. They believe that any performance in L2 in
likely to challenge an individual’s self-concept as a competent communicator, which may
lead to embarrassment. Laine (1987: 15) indicates that self-concept is the totality of an
individual’s thoughts, perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and values having reference to himself
as object. This self-concept forms the basis of the distinction between language anxiety and
other forms of academic anxieties. The importance of the disparity between the ‘true’ or
‘actual’ self as known to the language learner and the more limited self as can be presented
at any given moment in the foreign language would seem to distinguish foreign language
anxiety from other academic anxieties such as those associated with mathematics or
science.
10
Learners’ belief about language learning
As language learning poses a threat to learners’ self-concept, in response learners may
generate some particular beliefs about language learning and its use. Certain beliefs about

view that the problem for the student is not necessarily error correction but the manner of
error correction – when, how often, and most importantly, how errors are corrected.
In addition to error correction, some instructors have been reported not to promote pair or
group work in fear that the class may get out of control, and think that a teacher should be
doing most of the talking and teaching, and that their role is more like a drill sergeant’s
than a facilitator’s. These beliefs have been found to contribute to learner’s language
anxiety (Young, 1991: 428). Recognition or awareness of these beliefs by both the
learners, as well as the teachers, is essential for effective reduce of language anxiety in
learners.
1.2.3. Classroom procedure
Giving a short talk or presentation in the class has also been reported to be highly anxiety
inducing, which makes the classroom environment more formal and stressful for the
learners. Different activities in the classroom procedure, particularly those that demand
students to speak in front of the whole class, have been found to be the most anxiety
provoking. For instance, Koch and Terrell (1991) found that more than half of their
subjects in their Natural Approach classes – a language teaching method specifically
designed to reduce learner’s anxiety – expressed that giving a presentation in the class, oral
skits and discussions in large groups are the most anxiety-producing activities. They also
found that students get more anxious when called upon to respond individually, rather than
if they are given choice to respond voluntarily. In addition, students were found to be more
12
relaxed speaking the target language when paired with a classmate or put into small groups
of three to six than into larger groups of seven to fifteen students. Similarly, Young (1991:
429) added that more than sixty-eight percent of her subjects reported feeling more
comfortable when they did not have to get in front of the class to speak. Earlier, Horwitz et
al. (1986: 123) reported the same:
“Sometimes when I speak English in class, I am so afraid I feel like hiding behind my
chair. When I am in my Spanish class I just freeze! I can’t think of any thing when my
teacher calls on me. My mind goes blank.”
This suggests that any measure to treat language anxiety should not fail to exploit learning

1.4. COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1.4.1. Purpose
Communicative activities are those which exhibit the characteristics at the communicative
end of our continuum. Learners are somehow involved in activities that give them both the
desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of the target
language. Such activities are vital in a language class since the learners can do their best to
use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree of language autonomy. Littlewood
(1981) favored the opinion that it is quite necessary to consider the following purposes of
communicative activities:
• They provide ‘whole-task practice’. In foreign language learning, our means for
providing learners with whole-task practice in the classroom is through various
kinds of communicative activities, structured in order to suit the learners’ level of
ability.
• They improve motivation. The learners’ ultimate objective is to take part in
communication with others. Their motivation to learn is to be sustained if they can
see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and helps them to
achieve it with increasing success.
14
• They allow natural learning. Languages takes place inside the learners and, as
teachers know to their frustration, many aspects of it are beyond their pedagogical
control. It is likely, in fact, that many aspects of language can take place only
through natural processes, which operate when a person is involved in using the
language for communication. If this is so, communicative activity (inside or outside
the classroom) is an important part of the total learning process.
• They can create a context which supports learning. Communicative activity
provides opportunities for positive personal relationship to develop among learners
and between learners and teacher. These relationships can help to ‘humanize’ the
classroom, and to create an environment that supports the individual in his effort to
learn. Oral communicative activities apply the same purposes, as communicative
activities are operated mainly through oral communication.

skills which compose communicative ability, and provide the learners with opportunities to
practice them separately. This first kind of activities is sub-divided into structural activities
and quasi-communicative activities.
• Structural activities
Structural activities focus on the grammatical system, describing ways in which language
elements can be combined. These activities consist of pronunciation, vocabulary and
structure practice.
• Quasi- communicative activities
Quasi-communicative activities consist of one or more typical conversational exchanges.
Some resemble drills, but others are closer to dialogues. These quasi-communicative
16
activities are intended to help the learners relate forms and structures to communicative
function, specific meaning, and social context.
In short, the aim of pre-communicative activities is to practice using acceptable language
fluently, without being concerned to communicate meanings effectively.
• Communicative activities
These activities require the learners to integrate his pre-communicative meanings. In
discussing the various examples of communicative activities, Littlewood proposes to
distinguish between two main categories: functional communication activities and social
interaction activities.
• Functional communication activities
Functional communication activities are those which emphasize the functional aspect of
communication – the ability to find language which convey in intended meaning effectively
in a specific situation. The main purpose of the activity is that learners should use the
language they know in order to get meanings across as effectively as possible. Success is
measured primarily according to whether they cope with the communicative demands of the
immediate situation. Some examples of these activities are questions and answers, open-
ended responses, interview based on a text, information-gap activities, role-plays, etc.
• Social interaction activities
Social interaction activities are those which place emphasis on social as well as functional

more than one skill.
We are not of course suggesting that single-skill activities are not effective: there will in
fact be many occasions when we shall ask the learners just to talk or read or write, because
this is appropriate. Equally, however, we should be looking for opportunities to knit
together, because this is what happens in real life.
18