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Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410
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Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: "
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled
is the result of my own
research for the Degree of Master of Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi
National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any
other university or tertiary institution.
Signature:
Date:
I would like to acknowledge my debt to my supervisor, Mr. Do Tuan Minh, lecturer of
College of Foreign Languages,, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for his invaluable
support, guidance and suggestions when I was doing this research.
I wish to express my deep gratitude to other teachers and lecturers of College of
Foreign Languages whose lectures and suggestions have been most useful.
I am grateful to the teachers of English and all the 10th form students at Hermann
Gmeiner of Hanoi who helped me collect data for completing this study and who gave
me a great deal of helpful and valuable support.
I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my family and my friends whose constant
inspiration and encouragement did keep me going on with this research.
Last but not least, I wish to thank my readers for their interest and commend on this
research.
The application of Information Technology to foreign language education is obviously a must
in the Information age. In the last few years, there have been dramatic changes in the ways
that languages are taught with the replacement of grammar translation by communicative
approaches and the introduction of technological tools. The reason for such changes is that the
goal of Vietnamese learners is no longer to pass examinations but to use language for daily
communication and interactions.
Hermann Gmeiner school of Hanoi is seeking further improvements and achievement in
teaching English language skill. Apart from selecting qualified teaching staff, applying
appropriate teaching methods, the school is experimenting with the use of multimedia in
teaching English.
This study aims to investigate the current use of multimedia in teaching English speaking skill
at Hermann Gmeiner school of Hanoi. The subjects of the study were seventy-two 10
th
form
students and the teacher who was responsible to teach English to these students. The teacher
and the students were invited to take part in the survey, answer the questionnaire, participate
in the interview, and play the role of source for the author’s observation. The research reveals
that using multimedia to teach speaking skill to 10
th
form students is rather effective.
However, several difficulties are realized during the first steps of applying this method of
teaching; and thus, suggestions to overcome these obstacles as well as to increase the efficient
of using multimedia in teaching this skill are in great demand. On this basis, the study
provides a number of recommendations for the administrators, the teachers to utilize IT in
improving the teaching quality of speaking skill among EFL students.
Page
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1
1.1. Rationale…………………………………………………………………….
1
1.2. Purpose of the study……………………………………………………… 2
1.3. Scope of the study………………………………………………………… 2
1.4. Methods of the study………………………………………………………. 2
1.5. Significance of the study………………………………………………… 3
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4
2.1. The use of multimedia in a language classroom…………………………. 4
2.1.1. Definition of multimedia………………………………………… 4
2.1.2. The use of multimedia in a language classroom………………… 5
2.2. Speaking skill………………………………………………………………. 8
2.2.1. The importance of speaking………………………………………. 8
2.2.2. What is involved in speaking a foreign language? ……………… 9
2.2.3. Goals for teaching speaking………………………………………. 10
2.2.4. Teaching speaking in secondary schools…………………………
11
2.3. The new textbook “Tieng Anh 10”………………………………………
11
2.3.1. General introduction……………………………………………… 11
2.3.2. The description of the “Tieng Anh 10”…………………………… 11
2.3.3. Speaking lessons in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10”………… 12
2.4. Evaluation of a language lesson……………………………………………
13
2.5. Summary…………………………………………………………………… 15
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16
3.1. Methodology……………………………………………………………… 16
3.1.1. Research questions……………………………………………… 16
3.1.2. The participants…………………………………………………… 16
3.1.3. The conditions of teaching and learning English with IT at
Hermann Gmeiner school of Hanoi………………………………………
17
3.1.4. The instruments…………………………………………………… 18
3.1.5. The rational for combining quantitative and qualitative approach
20
3.2. Data collection and analysis procedure…………………………………
21
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22
4.1. Results and discussions from the questionnaire and interview for the
students………………………………………………………………………….
22
4.2. Results and discussions from the teacher interview…………………… 34
4.3. Results and discussions from the classroom observations
37
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)*.
39
5.1. Findings:…………………………………………………………………… 39
5.1.1. Findings…………………………………………………………… 39
5.1.2. Implications of the findings………………………………………. 41
5.2. Recommendations…………………………………………………………. 42
5.2.1. For the administrators…………………………………………… 42
5.2.2. For the teachers:………………………………………………… 43
5.3. Limitation of the study…………………………………………………… 44
5.4. Suggestions for further research………………………………………… 45
5.5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 45
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47
&'Student questionnaire
&('Student interview
&'Teacher interview
&'Classroom observation
*
Table 1 & chart 1: The degree of students’ interest in speaking lessons with multimedia and
without multimedia.
Table 2 & chart 2: The degree of students’ attention paid in speaking lessons with
multimedia and without multimedia.
Table 3 & chart 3: The degree of frequency students wanted speaking lessons to last longer.
Table 4 & chart 4: The degree of students’ activeness in participation in classroom activities
during speaking lessons.
Table 5 & chart 5: The students’ opinions about time for speaking skill practice.
Table 6 & chart 6: The students’ opinions about the extent of easiness that materials are
understood when presented with multimedia and without multimedia.
Table 7 & chart 7: The students’ opinions about the length of time for which materials
presented in speaking lessons are retained by them.
Table 8 & chart 8: The students’ opinions about the organization of peaking lessons.
Table 9 & chart 9: The students’ opinions about the teacher’s class management.
Table 10: The students’ opinions about the type of teaching method that help them to use the
language learnt better and with more confidence in the outside classroom situations.
"
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The information age urges educational success to depend on different factors in which
technology plays an important role. Information technology has created changes to the general
picture of education all over the world, changing the ways people acquire knowledge. For
developing countries like Vietnam, if it is to integrate itself into the outside world, applying
Information Technology (IT for short) to education is, certainly a must.
Children, in today's technologically advanced society, are growing up in an educational
environment that is struggling to overcome the teacher-centered classroom in which student
achievement is based on a system of memorization and recitation of material contained in a
single content area textbook. In order for students to succeed in a today's competitive society,
they must be given the opportunity and the guidance to develop not only knowledge level
skills, but they should graduate from high school with the ability to use that knowledge in
"real world" situations. Teachers are gradually realizing that traditional methods of teaching
are no longer capable of providing students with an educational foundation that is strong
enough to withstand the pressures of such a technologically dependent society. Students of
today have been raised in a society that is dependent on television, video games, computer
software, and most recently, the Internet. Everywhere you go it is almost impossible to find
anything that has not either been manufactured by computers and software, or that is not
dependent on computer technology for its functionality. If classroom teaching methodology
continues to follow the traditional pathway, we are likely to see a continued decline in the
academic progress of our children, because the inherent technology - based learning styles of
the instructors.
Since its first appearance in Vietnam in the early 1990s, IT has been proved to be effective on
the process of teaching and learning. It has been used differently in education and contributed
greatly to the pedagogical methodology renovation. Regarding foreign language teaching, IT
has been considered as a potential tool.
But the application of IT to promoting the teaching and learning of foreign languages in
Vietnam (in general) and in upper secondary schools in Hanoi including Hermann Gmeiner
school of Hanoi (in particular) is still limited. Moreover, as Vietnam is in the first steps of
applying IT to FL education, there has been a great shortage of studies on this particular field.
The above fact encouraged the author, who is a teacher of English at Hermann Gmeiner school
of Hanoi to explore this "potential but still left open field" into a particular aspect: IT and
teaching English speaking skill to upper secondary school students.
#+
Due to the limitation of time, the thesis was conducted primarily to examine the extent to
which IT can enhance and promote English speaking teaching at Hermann Gmeiner school of
Hanoi. More specifically, it aimed at:
- Establishing the influence of IT on FL education in general and on English speaking teaching
in particular and the extent to which IT can assist English speaking teaching by introducing an
overview of multimedia and the use of multimedia in EFL teaching.
- Investigating the situation of teaching English speaking skill using multimedia at Hermann
Gmeiner school of Hanoi through the analysis of synthesis of student questionnaire, student
interview, teacher interview and classroom observation.
- Proposing a number of indispensable recommendations for administrators and teachers to
exploit IT for promoting the effectiveness of English speaking teaching and attaining targeted
pedagogical aims.
$,
It would be too ambitious for this small-scaled thesis to specify all aspects of IT utilization in
education. Therefore, the researcher would like to focus only on using multimedia to teach
speaking skill to 10
th
form students at Hermann Gmeiner school of Hanoi.
&-
This was intended to be a descriptive case study. Data were collected through the analysis of
the student questionnaire, student interview, teacher interview and classroom observation.
They were then compared, contrasted, analyzed and synthesized both qualitatively and
quantitatively
The subjects for this study were seventy-two 10
th
form students which were placed in two
groups at Hermann Gmeiner school of Hanoi, and the teacher who was teaching these groups
of students.
(,
The study, if successful, will be of theoretical as well as practical benefits. First and foremost,
as it is among the pioneer studies in Vietnam which investigates the impact and utilization of
IT in this particular field of FL education with this particular group of learners, the thesis
hopes to provide a valuable background on the matter, which can be used as reference for
future studies on similar topics in such an area of growing interest. In addition, the findings
will be a useful starting point for teachers or administrators when planning to applied IT for
the learners of analogous contexts. Besides, the researcher can personally gain more
knowledge about this field during a process of critically researching materials and analyzing
collected data from the survey. Last but not least, the study itself wises to raise awareness
among teachers and administrators of utilizing the existing modern technologies to meets
students' needs and implementing the instruction 29/2001/CT - BGD&DT about applying IT
in education and training into specific perspectives (i.e. FL education).
#
Information technology is a broad subject which deals with technology and other aspects of
managing and processing information, especially in large organizations. Particularly, IT deals
with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process,
transmit, and retrieve information. Over the past 20 years, its prevalence has dramatically
increased so that it is now a part of nearly every aspect of daily life. IT has also been used
differently in education and contributed greatly to the pedagogical methodology renovation.
When dealing with the role of IT in education, we can not ignore the role of multimedia,
which has been considered to have enormous potential in education in general and in foreign
language teaching and learning in particular.
With the influx of multimedia technologies, foreign language pedagogy began to shift toward
more discourse oriented, interdisciplinary, and contextual modes of instruction. Because
language studies are by nature encyclopedic, the field has offered prime opportunities for
augmenting established educational techniques with interactive technologies and
methodologies. On many campuses, new multimedia learning centers and electronic
laboratories have already become the focus of the changing paradigms of foreign language
instruction.
2.1.1. The use of multimedia in language classrooms
2.1.1.1. Definition of multimedia
Multimedia is not a new concept and there are many definitions of it. According to Vicki
Sharp (2006), multimedia refers to communication of more than one media type, such as that
involving text, audio, graphic, animated graphics, and full of motion video.
Paul Brett, University of Wolverhampton (as retrieved from
pointed out that as language teachers we regularly
use in our teaching all the media types that go to make up multimedia. These are written texts,
pictures, sound and video. Each of these delivers messages in a particular manner and can
exemplify or elicit communicative language in its own particular way. "What multimedia
delivers, is the ability to juxtapose these essential language media, they can now exist within
the same space as each other. The power and effectiveness of the "multi" media should be
greater than the sum of its individual parts".
Multimedia has been made possible by the recent increase in the size and speed of personal
computers. Up to the 1990s, the majority of computers lacked the power to be able to
reasonably deliver much more than text, to crunch large amounts of numerical data or to
deliver simple graphics. The expansion in power of computers gave the capacity to store
pictures and to deliver and record sound. To these has now been added the deliver of moving
video. Language teaching and learning is concerned with the development of communication
skills and has traditionally and creatively exploited all these communication elements. Each
element has its own particular advantages in conveying particular kinds of messages and
evoking particular kinds of learners’ responses. Essentially however, the ability of the single
source, the computer, to combine, link and orchestrate all these communication elements
means we have a multimedia message which is most probably greater than the sum of its
individual parts.
Pfaffenberger (as cited in Vicki Sharp 2006) supposed that using this very broad definition of
multimedia, "multimedia in the classroom could include PowerPoint presentations that are
created by the teachers, commercial software (such as multimedia encyclopedias) that is used
for reference or instruction, or activities that directly engage the students in using multimedia
to construct and convey knowledge".
In this thesis, multimedia can be understood as the computer-delivered combination of a large
range of communication elements: text, sound, graphics, pictures, photograph, animation and
moving video, which is in the form of multimedia presentations that are created by teachers in
Microsoft PowerPoint.
2.1.1.2. The use of multimedia in language classrooms
With its advantages, multimedia is suitable for ESL/ EFL teaching using communicative
approaches. In fact, teachers around the world are experimenting with multimedia and using it
to motivate learners and to enhance their language lessons (Stempleski & Arcario, n.d.).
Brinton (2001) further emphasizes "Whatever the approach, language teachers seem to agree
that media can and do enhance language teaching" (p. 459)
Since the early 1960s, language teachers have witnessed dramatic changes in the ways that
languages are taught. The focus of instruction has broadened from the teaching of discrete
grammatical structures to the fostering of communicative ability (Warschauer & Kern, 2000).
Together with the appearance of communicative approaches, the emergence of multimedia in
language teaching has attracted the attention of teachers, academicians, educationalists and
experts. From the opinions of those who have studied the role and function of multimedia, it
seems to be rather controversial and unlikely to produce a definite answer to the apparently
simple question, "Do multimedia actually enhance and promote foreign language teaching?"
Brinton (2001) supposed that multimedia serves as an important motivator in the language
teaching process because "media materials can lend authenticity to the classroom situation,
reinforcing for students the direct relation between the language classroom and the outside
world" (p. 461). Hartnett (as cited in Brinton, 2001) shared that perspective by saying that
multimedia appeals to students' senses and help them process information, thus empowering
their understanding of the target culture and increasing their motivation toward language
learning, reinforcing the teaching points, and saving the teacher unnecessary explanation.
Similar findings have been made public by Warschauer (1996), Lee (1997), Bush (1997),
Beauvois (1998), and Meunier (1998) (as cited in Brauer, 2001). Additionally, "there seem to
be a beneficial multimedia effect, especially for low achieving students, when it is used to
illustrate concepts and organize factual information. (Nowaczyk, 1998 - as retrieved from:
The rationales of these researchers stem from the awareness that the emphasis in foreign
language learning has moved from a traditional approach - one that focuses on the study of the
language itself - to a communicative approach in which learners acquire both linguistic and
cultural competence. The application of multimedia can foster this goal by creating "a
learning environment wherein students practice their language skills and acquire target
culture" (Brauer, 2001, p.130). Mollica (as cited in Brinton, 2001) also suggested that media
provide teachers with a means of presenting material in a time-efficient and compact manner,
and of stimulating students' senses, thereby helping them to process information more readily.
In other words, such media as audio and video, computers related software and Internet
sources have been seen as effective media to develop students' language competence so that
they can interact with native speakers comfortably and successfully in real-life situations.
Some other studies showed the use of media has helped involve students more integrally in the
learning process and to facilitate language learning by making it a more authentic, meaningful
process (Nunan, 1999; Spelling, 1996; Warschauer, 1995 (as cited in Brinton, 2001)).
Stempleski, explored videos as a tool of foreign language teaching: In addition to being a
flexible vehicle for comprehension practice or for the presentation of new language, video,
particularly in its authentic forms, effectively stimulates language production, especially with
intermediate- and advanced-level students. Using video as a stimulus for classroom
communication usually involves student interaction in pairs and groups and manipulation of
the television technology to create an information gap that the learners must fill Video
technology offers the obvious advantages of stop/start, rewind/replay, sound on/off, and
freeze-frame controls. These facilities make it possible for the teachers to present different
sections of the video once or several times in different ways. For example, a teacher may
decide to turn the sound control off and show only the video pictures to the students, "…
preview video sequences, select viewing activities, and adapt the language exercises to fit
their students' needs and different classroom situations." (pp. 8, 12-13)
A parallel view was taken in the evaluation of video teaching by Schrum & Glisan (2000),
stating that video provides the context for a wide variety of communicative and interactive
activities in the classroom. Exercises such as class surveys, problem resolution, video title and
ending discussions, brainstorming, video summaries, and information-gap exercises are just
some examples. On the contrary, Froehlich (1999) has argued strongly against the contribution
of multimedia tools, emphasizing that:
While anecdotal evidence suggests that the use of multimedia in foreign language learning and
teaching has contributed somewhat to a general improvement of student attitude toward
foreign language study (something stressed in particular by salespeople of laboratory
equipment and software materials), there is no compelling evidence that the use of video
programs, laser discs, CDs or computer technologies has led, holistically or in part, to an
improvement in the acquisition and retention, grammatical accuracy, listening comprehension,
or whatever. It seems, therefore, that we have not progressed since the days of the audio-only
laboratory; we merely seem to have diversified the means, from one medium to multimedia,
but the end result is as inconclusive and unimpressive as before. (p.151)
Although no technology is value-free, the use of multimedia in the classroom presents some
challenges for teachers. Herrell (2000) thought that teachers who were not familiar with the
multimedia tools might turn their lessons from a success to a failure as they failed to use the
tools to support the lessons. "In fact, a teacher without experience in this approach is
sometimes overwhelmed with both the possibilities and the potential barriers" (Herrell, 2000,
p.134). In addition, Brinton (2001) claimed that the preparation of teacher-made media
materials demands an investment of time and energy beyond that of normal lesson planning.
As a result, quite a large number of language teachers express their inability or unwillingness
to use multimedia in their classrooms. Briton (2001) classified them into the following groups:
Type 1: I'm all thumbs. I can't use media.
Type 2: My school district has no budget for media.
Type 3: I have no time to prepare media materials of my own.
Type 4: The syllabus I teach from is too tightly structured to allow for materials to be
brought into the classroom.
Type 5: I teach advanced levels (alternatively, a given skill area such as composition or
reading) and therefore don't need to use media. (p. 460)
These different types of teachers are not willing to use multimedia to support their language
teaching because the lessons with multimedia require a great time and energy to prepare.
Apart from teachers, the relevance of media programs is another problem.
According to Thomas, Brodkey & Passentino (as cited in Stempleski & Arcario, n. d.), a
substantial number of English teachers do not use ELT media because they cannot easily
access such media materials and are not able to interpret the resources both culturally and
linguistically. Furthermore, Passentino (n. d.) discovered from a survey that up to now, no
minimum technical requirement has been set for inclusion of particular ELT media.
Finally, the literature leads us to the understanding, which was also asserted by Wright (as
cited in Brinton, 2001) that "language teaching is a collective title for a variety of activities
undertaken by different people in different circumstances. There is consequently no single
medium ideal for language teaching as is often claimed" (p. 473). Ultimately, the success or
failure of language learning/ teaching using multimedia can hardly be decided by the media
themselves, but by other determinants like teachers' creativity and adaptability, students'
language ability, the curriculum and the teaching goals as well.
##,
2.2.1. The importance of speaking
Speaking plays an utmost important role among the four language skills since it helps to
identify who knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992) points out that when people
mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language.
In a social context, social roles are likely to be taken by those who learn and know how to
speak, but not by those who do not have this skill. It cannot be denied that speaking deserves
as much attention as or even more attention than writting skill. In order to carry out many of
the most basic transactions, it is necessary for learners to speak with confidence.
2.2.2. What is involved in speaking a foreign language?
Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and
receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). 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 purposes for
speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. According to Hedge (2000),
speaking a foreign language competently involves the ability to make oneself understood and
to manage interaction.
A speaker’s skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (Van
Duzer, 1997). Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected pattern of
specific discourse situations. They must also manage discrete elements such as turn taking,
rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns & Joyce, 1997). For example a learner
involved in the exchange with the salesperson must know the usual pattern that such an
interaction follows and access that knowledge as the exchange progresses. The learner must
also choose the correct vocabulary to describe the item sought, rephrase or emphasize words
to clarify the description if the clerk does not understand, and use appropriate facial
expressions to indicate satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service.
Brown (1994) makes the following list of skills & knowledge that a good speaker possesses:
- Producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of the
language.
- Using grammar structures accurately.
- Assessing characteristics of the target audience, including shared knowledge or
shared points of reference, status and power relations of participants, interest levels, or
differences in perspectives.
- Selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the
topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs.
- Applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as emphasizing key words,
rephrasing, checking for listener comprehension, using gestures or body language.
- Paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech
such as vocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of grammar structures to maximize
listening comprehension and involvement (Brown, 1994).
- Learners should know what skills and knowledge they already have and what areas
need development.
2.2.3. Goals for teaching speaking
The goal of teaching speaking is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make
themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid
confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe
the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation.
To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, teachers can use a balanced
activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative
output.
Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages, and
the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the material they need to begin
producing language themselves. Language input may be content oriented or form oriented.
Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output, students may have options for
responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the
teacher has just introduced. Structured output is designed to make learners comfortably
producing specific language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with
previously learned items.
In communicative output, the learners’ main purpose is to complete a task, such as obtaining
information, developing a travel plan… To complete the task, they may use the language that
the teacher has just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and
communication strategies that they know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of
success is whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless
the lack of it interferes with the message.
In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different
categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit
from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective
language learning.
2.2.4. Teaching English speaking at secondary schools
At the secondary school level, and especially in the senior years, the task of maintaining
students’ interest and having obtainable short term goals may prove more difficult. With the
focus of study: being directed towards university entrance examinations students generally
have little desire or indeed motivation to improve language proficiency. Therefore, “Teachers
need to create interesting lessons in which the students’ attention is gained”. (Norris–Holt,
2001). Norris–Holt also emphasizes the importance of an interesting text in helping to create
motivation among students in the classroom “They can create a great deal of interaction and
help to motivate students to develop their language skills” (Norris–Holt, 2001).
Normally, at secondary schools, a series of the grammatical items to be taught in any one year
is listed. However, it does not imply that the teaching is solely based on grammatical parts
rather than the language as a whole. Johnson and Morrow [981: 61) point out that one
principle of Communicative Language Teaching is “the whole is more than the sum of its
parts”.
When saying about Communicative Language Teaching in secondary schools, Kirkpatrick
discusses the “role of fluency exercises and the grammar-based syllabus” and he comes to
conclusion: “Grammar–based syllabus and Communicative Language Teaching need not be
enemies but can work together happily” (Bikram, K, DAS, 1984: 182).
#$ ./ /
2.3.1. General introduction
English course for 10
th
form students in Vietnam in general and for those students at Hermann
Gmeiner school of Hanoi in particular is divided into 2 semesters with a total of 105 periods,
three periods of 45 minutes each week.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training (2002), the aims and objectives of the
senior high school English curriculum is to help students consolidate, widen and enrich their
English competence including both language knowledge and skills which they have gained at
junior high school.
English textbooks have come through a period of reformation, and now we are using the new
textbook "Tieng Anh 10", which is impressed in 2006 by Education Publishing House. It is a
continue of "Tieng Anh 6", "Tieng Anh 7", "Tieng Anh 8" and "Tieng Anh 9". The purpose of
the new "Tieng Anh 10" is to narrow the gap between classroom English and real English.
That means school leavers can use English in real-life situations. "Tieng Anh 10" was
compiled following the theme-based and task-based approach. The textbook consists of 16
topics corresponding with 16 units and 6 consolidation units presented as "test yourself".
There are 5 parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading - speaking - listening - writing -
language focus.
2.3.2. Speaking lessons in the new textbook "Tieng Anh 10"
The speaking part, like other parts in "Tieng Anh 10" is compiled following the course
requirements for methodology in teaching language skills of The Ministry of Education and
Training (MOET). The course requirements for methodology focus on the 4 criteria: Theme-
based approach; Communicative approach; Task-based learning; Learner-centered teaching
(teacher and student interaction) (MOET, 2003:40).
Speaking part consists of activities for practicing speaking skill based on language functions
and the topic of the unit. These activities are usually pair work, group work and individual
work. The objectives particular for teaching speaking skill for grade 10 are summarized as
follows. It is categorized in terms of thematic content and competence.
Thematic content Competence
1. You and me
- A day in the life of
- School talks.
- Asking for and giving information from a timetable
- Talking about daily activities.
- Making questions and giving responses in small talks
- People's background
- Asking and answering questions about people's background
- Role - playing
2. Education
- Special education
- Technology and you
- Making an interview: matching.
- Making an interview and reporting on results.
- Asking for and giving information about the uses of modern
technology.
- Talking about the uses of modern activities.
3. Community
-The mass media
- The story of my village
- Asking and answering questions about the uses of media.
- Talking about the uses of media.
- Talking about plans and their possible results ( in the village)
4. Recreaction.
- An excursion
- Music
- Films and cinema
- The world cup
- Expressing agreements and disagreements.
- Giving opinion.
- Asking and answering questions about music.
- Talking about favorite kinds of music.
- Expressing attitude.
- Expressing preference.
- Talking about a film.
- Asking and answering questions about the World cup.
- Talking about the world cup winners.
5.The world around us
- Undersea world
- Conservation
- National parks
- Talking about the causes and consequences.
- Offering solutions.
- Reporting on discursion results.
- Talking about the new kind of zoo.
- Reporting on discursion results.
- Making plans
- Expressing regrets.
- Talking about an excursion.
6. People and places
- cities
- Historical places
- Comparing two cities.
- Stating preferences and giving reasons.
- Asking and answering questions about a historical place.
- Talking about historical places from given information.
As can be seen from the table, after studying 16 units, 10
th
form students are expected to be
able to carry out conversations about daily life and to exchange information in English at a
simple level about the situations relating to the topic they have learnt.
#&
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of using multimedia in a language classroom, a quick
look at the criteria for a good lesson is also necessary. A good lesson is mainly resulted from a
good teaching. According to Richard Leblanc, York University, Ontario (as retrieved from:
some important requirements for good teaching
are:
- Good teaching is about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn,
and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable.
- Good teaching is about substance and treating students as consumers of knowledge. It's about
doing your best to keep on top of your field, reading sources, inside and outside of your areas
of expertise, and being at the leading edge as often as possible. Good teaching is also about
bridging the gap between theory and practice.
- Good teaching is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each
student and class is different. It's about eliciting responses and developing the oral
communication skills of the quiet students.
- Good teaching is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible,
fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances.
- Good teaching is also about style. Good teaching should be entertaining.
- Good teaching is about humor. It's about being self-deprecating and not taking yourself too
seriously.
- Good teaching is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It's about
devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It's also about the thankless hours of grading,
designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to still further enhance instruction.
- Good teaching is supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible
institutional support - resources, personnel, and funds.
- At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic
rewards
