Skkn applying debate technique to help the 12th form students at tan ky high school to improve speaking skill

PART I: INTRODUCTION
This part discusses the rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions,
the significances and the scope of the study. The methods and the design of the
research are also presented in this part.
I. Rationale of the study

While there are hundreds of different types of languages spoken in hundreds
of countries resulting in the language barriers, English serves as a bridge to
connect people all over the world. English is certainly the most common
international language in the globe due to the fact that English is used in many
sectors including Economy, Policy, Diplomacy, Tourism, Medicine, Science and
Technology, etc. Therefore, learning English as a second language or foreign
language are very fundamental especially for Vietnamese students at universities,
for the ability to speak English is one of the principle requirements of employees
and stakeholders alike to meet the demands of the global economy. Additionally,
in accordance with the National Ministry of Education in Kepmendiknas No.
22/2006 who states that English is a tool for communicating both in written and
oral, we may conclude the main goal of study English in school is as a preparation
of communicating with other people, in any context, when English is required. Of
four main skills named speaking, writing, reading and listening, Bailey (1993)
says that speaking is the center skill and the most demanding. As a result,
although a good performance in English requires students to be competently in all
aspects: reading, writing, speaking and listening, English teachers are expected to
focus on guiding their learners to master speaking ability fluently and correctly.
Nowadays, more and more people desire to become skilled at English speaking.
However, at many high schools and universities in Vietnam in general and Tan Ky
High school in particular, speaking English is not a favorite skill. In fact, last year,
the researcherdiscovered that many students were quite passive in speaking classes
and seemed to be shy to share ideas with other students or the teacher.
Furthermore, they seem to not be interested in speaking lessons. Hence, to speak
English precisely and fluently turns out to be a big challenge indeed. This finding

was supported by ideas from the students and some other teachers who teach
English at Tan Ky High school that speaking classes were often ineffective
because students rarely interact in English.
Among some activities enriching students’ ability to speak English like:
game and role-play in CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) accordance to
Littlewood (2008) or in order to raise the students’ voice in the speaking classes,
various activities have been suggested for English speaking class such as group
work, discussion, pair-work, simulation and games (Kayi, 2006; Nunan, 2003;
Burns, Anne and Joyce, 1997). Debate is one of these techniques and is not the
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new one but it helps to develop strong listening skills, self-confident (Bradley,
1959). Maryadi (2008) states that debate can motivate students thinking, moreover
if they must defend their stand or opinion which is in contradiction with conviction
of them. This strategy can involve all students to be active, not only debate
performer. One study reveals that debate tends to encourage students to use their
linguistic knowledge in real communication context and situation, especially in
oral communication; it increases their ability and capability in speaking English
(Mabrur, 2002). But, debate technique hasn’t been used widely and frequently for
teaching speaking at Tan Ky High school.
All reasons mentioned above have inspired the researcher to carry out the
study titled “Applying debate technique to help the 12th form students at Tan
Ky High school to improve speaking skill”
II. Aims of study

The main aims of the study are:
* To investigate the effectiveness of using the debate technique in developing

students’ speaking ability in speaking classes.
* To the students’ perception toward the speaking classes in which teacher
use debate as a teaching technique.
III. Research questions

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, some questions are formulated as
follow:
1) Whether or not using debate technique in teaching speaking can improve

speaking skills of the 12th grade students at Tan Ky High school?
2) What are the students’ perceptions toward debate in speaking lessons?

IV.Significance of the Study
The present research is believed to have several significances for theoretical,
practical, and professional benefits.
* Theoretical benefit
The research findings can be used as the contribution toward the research about
using debate technique to teach English speaking.
* Practical benefit
The research findings will be useful to teachers, students and also the readers
who are interested in teaching English especially for those in Tan Ky High School
environment. It is expected to help teachers to get alternative ways in their
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teaching process, especially by using debate.
* Professional benefit
The research problem can help teachers to improve the quality of teaching,

students’ relationship, and to create an interesting study environment in English
speaking classroom.
This innitiative helps the writer to develop her knowledge and experience in
composing academic writing.
V. The scope of study
Due to the limitation of time and the researcher’s knowledge, the object of
this study is focused on teaching speaking using debate method in a few speaking
classes of twelveth grade students at Tan Ky High school (class 12C1 and 12C9).
VI. Methods of the study
In order to set up a firm theoretical background for the study, relevant
publications are critically reviewed.
Experimental Method was applied to answer the research questions.
To collect the data, the following techniques have been applied: Survey
questionnaire , speaking oral tests( namely pre-test and post-test), video-based
observation.
VII. Population and sample
1. Population
The population of this research was the twelveth grade students in two classes
(12C1 &12C9) in Tan Ky High school.
2. Sample
On the whole, the participants of this study:
1. Applying lesson plans using debate technique : class 12C9
2. Teaching without using debate technique : class 12C1
VIII. Design of research work
The research work has four main parts: Introduction, Development,
Discussions and Findings and Conclusion.
1. Part 1: The “Introduction” consists of the rationale, the objectives, the
scope, the significance, the method and the design of the study.

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2.

Part 2: The “ Development” consists of two chapters:

a.Chapter one is entitled “Literature Review”. This chapter reviews the previous
studies, the literature review in brief, the definition of speaking English, teaching
speaking, as well as the definition of debate, the advantages and disadvantages of
using debate in teaching speaking English.
b. Chapter two is entitled “Methodology”. It describes the research method used in
this research. It is composed of the description of the subjects and procedures of
making research.
3.
Part 3: The “Discussions and Findings” presents the result of research and
the analysis of the data.
4.
Part 4: In the “Conclusion” the researcher gives a brief summary of the
study and also provide some limitations and suggestions based on the findings as
well.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter involves the literature review in brief, some issues related to
speaking English, teaching speaking English and debate.
I.1 Speaking English
I.1.1. Origin of speaking English
Of all four key language skills, speaking is deemed to be the most important
in learning a second or foreign language. It is explained in various ways by a
number of experts.
According to Brown and Yule (1983), speaking is the skill that the students
will be judged upon most in real-life situations. It is an important part of everyday
interaction and most often the first impression of a person based on his/her ability
to speak fluently and comprehensively.
Speaking can be defined as a communicative procedure focusing on
meaning construction that engages in creating, obtaining and processing
information (Burns & Joyce, 1997). Speaking ability though refers to verbal
communication ability in a practical, functional and precise way using the target
language. Speaking is an important skill and the main key to communication for
both ESL/EFL learners and teachers.
Chaney (1998) stated that speaking is the process of building and sharing
meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts.
According to Scoot (2005:79) “Speaking is consider as the productive and
oral skill. Speaking is a cognitive skill, is the idea that knowledge became increase
automatically through successive practice”.
According to Nunan (2003:48) “Speaking is the productive oral skill. It
consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning”.
Alternatively, Nunan (1999: 216) indicates that speaking requires learners to
not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar,
pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also understand when,
why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence").

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Adopted these previous definitions, the researcher can conclude that speaking is a
process of sharing with others knowledge, interest, attitudes, opinions or ideas.
And speaking skill is the ability to say, to address, to make known, to use or be
able to use a given language in the actual communication.
In the light of these highlighted definitions, the researcher can compose an
operational definition of speaking skill in this study as speaking is the ability to
produce meaningful utterance or discourse orally to address other people and to be
accurate in using grammar and vocabulary.
I.1.2. Teaching speaking English
Many teachers agree that students should learn to speak the second language by
interacting with others. So, students should master several speaking components
such as comprehension, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency. In brief,
English teachers should be creative in developing their teaching/ learning process
to create good atmosphere, improve the students' speaking skill, give attention to
the speaking components, and make the English lesson more exiting. For this
reason, the English teacher should apply appropriate methods and techniques of
teaching speaking. The method used by the teacher is communicative approach.
In general, to communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech
act being performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed. For
example, a statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an
apology expresses regret. As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the
audience identifies, in accordance with the speaker's intention, the attitude being
expressed which is realized in the language. Therefore, some researchers and
experts have tried to assign the notion of teaching speaking like Nunan (2003:48)
who has clarified it as to teach English language learners to:

1. produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns;
2. use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second
language;
3. select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting
situation and subject matter;
4. organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence;
5. use language as a means of expressing values and judgments, and
6. use language quickly and confidently.
Nunan (2003: 55, 56) also proposes five principles for teaching speaking. Below
are the descriptions:

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a. Be aware of the differences between foreign language and second language
learning context.
Personally, teaching speaking is the way for students to express their
emotions, communicative needs, interact with other people in any situation, and
influence the others. For this reason, in teaching speaking skill it is necessary to
have clear understanding involved in speech.
While foreign language context is one where the target language is not the
language of communication in society, second language is.
b.

Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy.

Accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people
actually say when they use the target language. Fluency is the extent to which

speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or
unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc. Teacher must provide students
with fluency-building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of
learning a new language.
c. Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work,
and limit teacher talk.
It is important for us as language teachers to be aware of how much we are
talking in class so we do not take up all the time the students could be talking. Pair
work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that
learners get to speak in the target language during lessons.
d.

Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning.

Learners make progress by communicating in the target language because
interaction necessarily involves trying to understand and make teacher understood.
This process is called negotiating for meaning. It involves checking to see if you
have understood what someone has said, clarifying your understanding, and
confirming that someone has understood your meaning.
e.
Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both
transactional and interactional speaking.
When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually do it for
interactional or transactional purposes. Interactional speech is communicatingwith
someone for social purposes. Transactional speech involves communicating to get
something done, including the exchange of goods and/or services.
I.2.

Debate

I.2.1 Understanding debate

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Debate is well enough known as arguing ideas between two opposite sites demands
students to be able to defend their opinions so it requires good ability to speak
English well.
A debate is about the real or simulated issue. The learners’ roles ensure that
they have adequate shared knowledge about the issue and different opinions or
interest to defend. At the end of activity, they may have to reach a concrete
decision or put the issue to a vote (Littlewood, 1981)
As Quinn (2005) said in his book, Debate, “debating give you chance to
meet new people and new ideas. Best of all, you have the opportunity to stand up
and argue with someone in public, in a stimulating and organized dispute about
real issues” (p.1). It means that facilitates student to discuss their ideas and try to
convince people. Debating is an important and interesting way to discuss issues
facing our society. Students have to speak with some evidences and defend their
opinions to win the debate. Debate allows students to know many different people
with different ideas.
Another opinion comes from Mulholland (2002) that in a formal debate, a
strong developed personal need and strong social preference are presented for
manageable agreement and disagreement. The two intertwined and affect the
formulation of a very high proportion of speech behaviors produces in interaction.
It means that debate has a huge amount of interaction role among people because
people want a confession of ideas about disagreement. In presenting the
confession, the debate will strongly show their characteristic of speech behaviors
during interaction.

Based on opinions above the researcher can assume that debate is a more
communicative interaction that involves opposite point of views and builds critical
and strong characteristics. In form of classroom debate, it presents opportunities
for students to engage and use extended chuck of language for a purpose
toconvincingly defend one side of an issue. Debates are most appropriate for
intermediate and advanced learners who have been guided in how to prepare for
them. Debate is an activity in which students take up positions on issue and defend
their position; therefore to prepare students for debate, teachers have to make sure
that students have been given all the necessary information in order to research and
present their side of the issue.
I.2.2. The benefits of debate
Some people believe in debate as training for law or politics. Actually for the
vast majority of debaters, participating in debate is about training for everyday life.
Debating can be the ultimate multi-task school activity since it involves research,
writing, speaking, listening and teamwork. Adapted from a journal by Kennedy,
debate as an active instructional strategy is aimed to enhance learning particularly
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in the areas of mastering the content and active engagement, developing critical
thinking skill, oral communication skills and empathy.
a. Mastering the content and active engagement. Students learn more
affectively by actively analyzing, discussing and applying content in meaningful
ways rather than by passively absorbing information. Students learn best when
applying what they are learning. In the class, debate cultivates active engagement
of students and placing the responsibility of comprehension for individual and
teamwork. Debate encourages students to re-read and re-think both their own and
the opposing position more intensely than is necessary to repeat lecture material.

The students’ approach dramatically changes from a passive approach to an active
one. Through debate, students can improve their comprehension toward the issues.
b. Developing critical thinking skills. Because debate requires listeners and
participants to evaluate ideas, it develops higher-order psychological functions as
well as critical thinking skills. The lower order thinking skills of knowledge,
comprehensions and application focus on rote learning or what students should
think, whereas the higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluate
focus on how to think
c. Oral communication skills. Students with debate experience are significantly
better at employing the three communication skills: analysis, delivery and
organization. The students receive extensive criticism and feedback and measure
against established educational standards so they have to show fluent explanation,
exact pronunciation and use correct grammar. Implementing debate in speaking
class can help students to achieve over standards.
d. Developing empathy. When students debate they listen to both sides of the
argument. They do see both sides, rather than just seeing it from one point of view.
Debate is one way to minimize instructor bias. By learning both side of a
controversial topic, student are more open-minded and better able to see another
person’s view debate also provides opportunities to developing empathy as
students give consideration to various viewpoints.
I.2.3. The disadvantages of debate
In the learning process, debate has limitations too. According to Malley and
Pierce (as cited in Rubiati, 2010), there are many disadvantages of debate while
using it in the classroom. Firstly, debate technique only can be used for specific
subjects, such as subjects that are concerned with agreeing and disagreeing and
giving argument. Secondly, debate needs a long times for preparation. Much
preparation is needed in debating in order to make sure that the debate runs well.
Students should prepare their arguments before the debate to make it easier for
them to attack the opponent’s opinion. Finally, it requires the students to be
controlled in defending their argument. Many students can’t control their emotion

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when they defend their opinions. Although it has these disadvantages, it seems that
the benefits do outweigh the disadvantages in the development of English
speaking. Moreover, its disadvantages can be minimized by the teachers.
I.2.4. Debate to improve speaking skill
One of the ways to encourage students to improve their speaking skill is by
using debate. Debate can present opportunities for students to express their own
ideas and thinking about the topic. Therefore, debate builds students’ confidence
and makes their speaking skill more perfect by practicing frequently. “Debates
require extensive preparation by learners, call for interaction in groups and make
use of at least the following language functions: describing, explaining, giving and
asking for information, agreeing and disagreeing” (Malley and Pierce, 1969, p.87.).
Besides, debate in speaking class can improve students’ critical thinking and
students’ communication skill. By performing debate students have a lot of
opportunities in practicing speaking and they will be encouraged to become
flexible users of their knowledge, always keeping the communicate goal in mind.
In conclusion, there are variety of techniques and methods to make the
speaking lessons more interesting and effective such as: Acting from script,
communication games, discussion, prepared talk, and so on. However, debate
technique as the literature above shows is effective, interesting and easy to apply in
speaking lesson. Besides, debate was a challenging and highly rewarding activity
for those who were involved and allows students to share and cooperate with one
another. It educates students with responsibility, encourages creativity and deepens
friendship. Nonetheless, this technique is not used frequently in teaching in
Vietnam and students’ perceptions towards the use of Debate Technique refer to
students’ views, opinions, and beliefs in their speaking ability, and learning

through debate are not determined clearly. The potential effectiveness of debate
and the way to create debate in speaking lesson has been demonstrated in a number
of research studies but it not for all schools or universities. If the study time had
been extended, the result might have been different.
I.2.5. Components and formats of a debate in speaking classes.
1. Components of debate.
There are different types of debate and it is important that you know what kind
of debate you will be participating in. There are somethings, however, that all
debate formats have in common:
The resolution: there is a resolution of policy or value that provides the basic
substance of the discussion. The terms of this resolution will be defined by the first
speaker of the debate.
The affirmative group and the negative group: They are two teams
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representing those in favor of the resolution (Affirmative) and those against
(Negative).
Rebuttal: the debate closes with final rebuttals on both sides which
summarize their respective positions.
2. Debate formats.
There are many different formats which can be used in the classroom debate.
These formats below are considered to be more suitable:
1) The Fishbowl Debate: Randomly select a handful of students to come

sit in front of the classroom in a half-circle facing the students. Pose a
question or a statement to those selected students and ask them to discuss it.
The rest of the classmates ask a question to the panel or take turns taking

their spot in the fishbowl, but they are not allowed to speak otherwise. This
format is used when students have prior knowledge about the topic.
2) Advocate Decision-Making Debate – Students are placed into groups

of three and assigned a topic to debate. One person is in support of the topic,
one is against, and one acts as the judge. The judge, or “Decision maker,”
will create a list of questions to ask the advocates, which students will use as
their debate outline. Then the judge will decide at the end of the debate who
is the winner. This can be done in front of the class or in groups at the same
time.
3) The Four Corners Debate - This debate will get students up and

moving while using their critical thinking skills. Students are given a topic,
then they must prepare a well-supported paragraph stating their position (they
may strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree, or just disagree). Next, students
will move to the corner of the classroom where they see their position posted
on the wall. The strongly disagree position is posted in the right-hand corner,
while the agree position is posted in the left-handed corner, and so on. Once
students move to their corner, they get 10 minutes to discuss their thoughts.
Appoint one person the note-taker and one person the speaker. At the end of
the 10 minutes, invite each speaker to state her case on the topic. If at the end
of the debate a student has changed his mind, he is allowed to move corners.
Then students get another 10 minutes to discuss. After that point, students
take their seats to write a new paragraph detailing their thoughts on the topic.
4) Ball-Toss Debate – Students are given a topic and must take a side.

Each student goes to the side of the classroom where their position is either
for or against the topic. Move desks so that each side is facing each other.
Have students sit on their desks and take turns tossing a ball to discuss their
position on the topic. Only the student with the ball can speak. This debate is

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just like the mum-ball, except students are using it to debate an issue.
Summary
The previous sections focus on speaking skills and debate activities as an
essential and effective way in teaching speaking English. The teacher is able
to improve the student’s speaking ability because debate activities offer a
unique opportunity for teachers to encourage students to work together, to
apply course material, and to assume increased responsibility in the
classroom. Study of debate has demonstrated its effectiveness in promoting
critical thinking and oral speaking skills. Beyond these skills, debate also
increases student's preparation and participation. The use of various format of
debate can account for these concerns while still allowing the positive aspects
of debate to be enjoyed in the classroom.
Finally, debate has its shortcomings that require teachers to have a good
preparation.

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CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY
This chapter is divided into two main sections. In the first section, the
researcher presents the understanding and the reasons behind the use of
experimental research. The sample and population as well as all the data
collection instruments used in this research are also discussed in the section two

with the justifications for using them. And the research procedure is the last thing
to be mentioned in this section.
II.1. Research design
This study was conducted with the employment of experimental research
(pretest-posttest design only).
Definition and rationale for the use of experimental design
According to McLeod (2007), experimental design refers to how participants
are allocated to the different conditions in an experiment. Probably the
commonest way to design an experiment is to divide the participants into two
groups, the experimental group and the control group, and then introduce a
change to the experimental group and not the control group.
The researcher applied this kind of research because the control over the
irrelevant variables is higher as compared to other research types or methods.
Another good thing about experimental research is that experiments can be
repeated and results can be checked again. Better results that have been obtained
can also give researcher greater confidence regarding the results that can only be
applied to one situation and may be hard to replicate and lastly difficulty in
measuring human response.
The simple but elegant design is the basic for most of the variation on the
experimental design in research involving human subjects. It can be represented
by a set of symbols (Campell and Stanley, 1963, p.13)
Pretest
O1

Treatment
X

O3

Posttes

R

O2
O4

R= Randomized, that is, subjects are randomly selected and randomly assigned
to the treatment group.
O= testing
X= the treatment.
Honestly, because of the limitation of time, the financial reason and
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researcher’s knowledge-base, as well as the aim of the study, it is nearly
impossible to use randomization. The reason is that at the end of the experiment,
the differences the experimenter finds between the Experimental group and the
Control may be due to some other preexisting attributes of the participants and
obviously, the researcher cannot handle this. Therefore, the pretest-posttest only
design is the most suitable to organize the study successfully.
Pretest-posttest designs are one of the simplest methods of testing the
effectiveness of an intervention. In this design, which uses two groups, one group
is given the treatment and the results are gathered at the end. The control group
receives no treatment, over the same period of time, but undergoes exactly the
same tests (Shuttleworth ,2009).
The various analyses that can be performed upon a two-group control group pretest-posttest
designs are:

Group

Pretest

Experimental group

O1

Control group

O3

Treatment
X

Posttest
O2
O4

This kind of research design is claimed to be useful for educational
research since it is often randomly assign subjects. The researcher can use intact,
already established group of subjects. In this research:
Experimental group was 44 students from class 12C9
Control group was 42 students from class 12C1
O1: oral speaking pre-test for EG.
O2: oral speaking posttest for EG.
X: using debate technique.
O1: oral speaking pre-test for CG.
O2: oral speaking post-test for CG.
II.2. Research context

II.2.1. Population
The population of this research was the twelveth grade students of Tan Ky
high school in the school year of 2020 - 2021 It consists of two classes: 12C1 and
12C9. The population number was shown in the table below.
Table 1. Population

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Class

12C1

12C9

Male

24

11

Female

18

33

Number of students

42

44

The students of these two classes have a basic knowledge in English and good
attitudes toward learning this subject.
II.2.2. Research instruments
The research instruments employed to collect data for this study are
questionnaire, oral speaking tests and observation.
a. Rationale behind the use of the survey questionnaire and its
construction
 The reasons why survey questionnaire is taken into consideration are:

Firstly, when using survey questionnaire, large amounts of information can be
collected from a large number of people in a short period of time and in a relatively
cost effective way (Ackroyd and Hughes, 1981). Since the number of participants
is large, in order to take all the opinions of the same issue, this method is quite fit
for not time-consuming but economical and convenient.
Secondly, the results of the questionnaires can usually be quickly and easily
quantified by either a researcher or through the use of a software package.
Regard all the reasons above, with 44 students in 12C9, the survey
questionnaire which would be given at the end of experiment had been designed to
figure out the real thoughts of students and their ideas of the speaking lessons
using debate technique.
 Construction of the survey questionnaire: ( Appendix A)

The survey questionnaire consisted of six multiple choice questions and one
half-opened question. Questions 1, 2 and 3 aim to ask students’ attitude about the
speaking lessons applied debates. The questions 4, 5 and 6 explore the

effectiveness of using debates. The question 7 also has three options for students
to choose but students were required to give their comments or suggestions about
using this kind of technique.
b. Rationale behind of the use of oral speaking tests( interview) and its
construction

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 The reasons why oral speaking test is taken into consideration are:

Those who are against oral tests claim that testing speaking is the most
complex task to assess with precision; it is difficult to judge utterances the test
answers in real time, while recording is expensive and time-consuming. According
to Wijarwadi (2008, p18), speaking is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous
use of different abilities which often develop at different rates. However, it does
not mean that a speaking test can't be measured in a correct way.
Hughes (2003) listed three general formats for testing speaking ability:
interview, interaction with peers and responses to tape recording. Interaction with
peers is not the technique used by the researcher to assess speaking ability. In the
interaction with peers, two or more students may be asked to discuss a topic. The
problem with this format is that the performance of one student may be affected by
that of others. One student might dominate the conversation. Therefore, it is
important to pair students in accordance with their level of language proficiency.
Based on the reasons mentioned above and took the practical conditions of
researcher and students at Tan Ky High school into consideration, the researcher
decide to take oral test with the format of face-to-face interview. Each student had
to talk about a topic taken from the list of speaking topics and was asked two or

three questions related to topic or general questions on familiar topics like: sport,
family, weather, etc. Because of the large number of students, avoiding bias and
the accuracy of the results, the researcher was the main test-taker. And to grade
students’ performance the researcher had created a speaking rubric.
There are two types of test. The pre-test was conducted in January
September, 2020 and the post-test was carried out in January,2021
 The speaking rubric.
Most teachers will be familiar with the concept of grading with a rubric, a
table with different criteria and a grading scale. Simply choose the criteria on
which you will grade students and list them along the left side of the page. Then
create an even number of columns along the top of the page. These columns will
represent potential skill levels of the students. For each criterion, define what level
of the ability a student at each of the levels would exhibit. The more rubrics we
make, the more detailed we can be in your descriptions. Then, as we evaluate each
student, determine at which level he or she is performing. Take the average level
among the criteria and we have an objective grade with suggestions for areas in
which students can improve.
Thus, in relation to testing students’ performance in English speaking skills,
the rubric are usefully able to grade the students’ performance based on some
criteria which are usually made based on language features of students. These
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criteria are really useful because they show the aspects that the examiners should
grade so that they do not play guessing game.
The researcher created the rubric by taking the average student’s level in
English into consideration and the format of “Scoring rubric of speaking skill”
based on (Brown, 2004: 172-173). It consists of 5 criteria: 1. Vocabulary; 2.

Fluency; 3. Pronunciation; 4. Grammar; 5. Interaction. Each criterion consists of
five levels arrange from very poor (1 point) to excellent (5 points). More detail
about the rubric can be seen clearly on Appendix B.
 Video-based observation
 The reasons why observation is taken into consideration are:

Observation is a highly valued and effective research method that allows
one to observe what people actually do as opposed to what they think they do, or
would like others to think that they do. When using video-tape to record
observations, the action or interaction will be recorded in its entirety and can be
viewed repeatedly as required. As a result, observation and interaction can be
observed in variety of ways and angles in different times. Furthermore, video-tape
recordings can be used to reduce observer bias. Observer bias is a systematic
difference between a true situation and that observed owing to observer variation
in perceptions. In sum, the use of video-based observation to observe speaking
classes in this research seem to improve the classroom observation process along a
number of dimensions. It boosted observers’ perception of fairness of classroom
observation, ensured the reliability as well as overcame this source of subjectivity,
and using more than one observer to view and analyze the video-taping can
enhance validity.
 How to conduct a video-based observation.

In this research, the observation was conducted only with EG very
speaking lesson in which debate was used as a teaching technique. During the
lesson, the researcher directly taught the class speaking lessons. A single mobile
was used to record everything happened in the class. The observers had to take a
close watch to each student and wrote down any unpredictable and noticeable
phenomenon appeared as well. The video recording was analyzed every after
finishing lesson. After that all the observations would be collected and analyzed in
the Findings part.

II.2.3. Planning
From September 5th, 2020 to January 15th, 2021, students of class 12C9
were taught speaking by using debate technique while the ones of class 12C1
learned speaking lessons by the traditional ways.

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In the experimental period, the CG was taught speaking in the traditional
methods. It meant that teachers only followed the textbook activities. In contrast,
12C9 students joined the debate activities. The researcher directly taught them and
applied not only one format of debate but combined four popular formats
including: The Fishbowl Debate; Advocate Decision-Making Debate; The Four
Corners; Debate Ball-Toss Debate which were described in details in part I not to
make students get bored and to create an interesting and lively study atmosphere.
At the first lesson, the researcher introduced debate and related information to
make sure students understand clearly about it and how to apply and then, applied
these four types of debate one by one for each speaking lesson in which the
researcher as a teacher usually started with providing the topics and the related
vocabulary as well as the useful grammar structures. The next steps were
summarized as followed:
1. Dividing students into two teams representing those in favor of the
resolution (Affirmative) and those against (Negative) teams.
2. Selecting debate topic and assigning the two teams to debate the topic.
3. Ensuring that the participants have time beforehand to prepare for the
arguments and to collect supporting data to present during the debate
4. Presenting the topic and format of the debate
5. An example format of the debate as following :

a). Side 1 presents opening arguments, with three members each giving a
statement
b).Side 2 presents opening arguments, with three members each giving a
statement
c). Side 1 has chance for rebuttal
d). Side 2 has chance for rebuttal
e). Side 1 has chance for a second rebuttal
f). Side 2 has chance for a second rebuttal
g). Side 1 takes time for a conclusion
h). Side 2 takes time for a conclusion.
6.

Make a judgment:

Before finishing the lesson the teacher had to let students know which team
was the winner. The winner had to be the team having the strongest case. All the
class voted on which team they thought made the most convincing argument. The
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teacher would be the one who made the last decision which team was the most
success in debate based on their ability to communicate clearly, use good grammar
structures and have good pronunciation. The winner team received good marks or
small gifts from the teacher. The teacher also gave feedbacks sand summarized the
lesson.
While applying debate technique in teaching speaking, the researcher as
the teacher had to reduce her talking and let the students speak as much as
possible.

II.2.4.The application of debate technique in teaching speaking skill.
II.2.4.1. Some topics can be used for debating when teaching speaking skill.
Unit 1: HOME LIFE
1. Should kids do household chores?
2. House – husband : Good or Bad?
Unit 2: CUTURAL DIVERSITY
1. Old- aged parents live in nursing home: Good or Bad?
2. Should couples live together before marriage?
Unit 4: SCHOOL EDUCATION SYSTEM
1. Online education should replace traditional classroom.
2. Students should be free from homework.
3. We should abolish grading system in schools.
Unit 5: HIGHER EDUCATION
1. A university degree is a key to a sucessful life.
2. Students should be allowed to go to the university without examination.
Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS
1. That it is better to choose a high-paid job that you are uninterested in than a
low-paid job that you like
Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE
1. Life in the future will be better or worse?
2. The internet is making our life better or worse?
Unit 10: ENDANGERED SPECIES

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1. Is animal testing a justified?
2. Animals should be kept in the zoo.

Unit 11: BOOKS
1. Books can be replaced by the internet.
Unit 15: WOMEN IN SOCIETY
1. Women shouldn’t go to work, but just stay at home to take care for the
whole family.
II.2.4.2. Demo Lesson
Unit 1: HOME LIFE
Lesson B: SPEAKING
I. Objectives:
1. Knowledge
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- talk about household chores.
- express their ideas about family life.
2. Target competences:
- Increasing Students’ communication, self- study skills, critical thinking,
problem- solving and creativeness
3. Qualifications:
Increasing students’ hard work, science awareness, self-study spirit,
enthusiasm, challenge acceptation, self- respecting, self- reliant, self- control and
overcoming difficulties
II. Teaching Aids: pictures, cards
III. Teaching Process
1. Class Organization

Class

Date of teaching

Attendance

12 C9

44

2. Checking: During the lesson
3. New Lesson:
ACTIVITY 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Objectives

Introduce the topic of the lesson and to raise Ss’ interest

1.2 Content

Brainstorming: Hosehold chores
Clean the house

cooking

washing dishes

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1.3 Products

Household
Ironing
Feeding pets

chores Taking out the garage
Washing clothes
Gardening
Vacuuming
Sweeping the floor

1.4 Implementation

- Divide class into 2 groups
- Ask the 2 groups dicuss to make a list of household
chores.
- Elicit students’ answers to decide the winner
- Give feedback
- Lead into new lesson

ACTIVITY 2: KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
2.1 Objectives

Focus Ss on the topic
Ss work in pair and talk about their family

2.2 Content

Read the following sentences and tick the ones that apply
to you and your family.
1. In my family, only my father works.
2. Members of my family share the household chores.
3. My responsibility in the family is to wash the dishes.
4. In my family, the interest we share closely is watchng
football.

5. I often share my personal secrets with my mother.
6. I always talk to my parents before making an important
decision.

2.3 Products

Some Ss are invited to talk about their family in front of
the class.

2.4 Implementation

- Ask each student to read the sentences and check the
ones that apply to her /him and his /her family.
- Put Ss into pairs to practice speaking about their family,
basing on the sentences in Task 1.
- Invite some Ss to speak out their ideas.
- Give feebback
ACTIVITY 3: PRACTICE

3.1 Objectives

- Ss can ask and answer about their family life.
- Ss can make a report about his/her friends’family life
based on the information they get from the interview

3.2 Content

- Prepare a list of questionsto ask other Ss about their
family life
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- Interview other Ss
- Make a report
3.3 Products

Questions:
1. Who works in your family?
2. Who do th household chores in your family?
3. What are your responsibilies in your family?
4. What interest does your family share closely?
5. Who do you often share your secret with?
6. Who do you talk to before you make a decision?
Interview
Report
I have just had an interview with Lan about her family life.
Both her parents work. And at home, all the members
share the household chores. Lan’s responsibility in the
family is to do the washing up and take out the garbage…..

3.4 Implementation

- Have Ss work in pairs, prepare a list of questions about
family life .
- Ask Ss to work on their own, using the just- formed
questions above to ask 3 other students in the class about
their family life and then make a report.
- Call on some Ss to present their report in front of the

class
- Give feedback and give marks
ACTIVITY 4: APPLICATION
(Applying Debate Teachnique)

4.1 Objectives

Ss become debaters, using their critical thinking to present
and protect their opinion about the topic.

4.2 Content

“House – Husband: Good or Bad?”

4.3 Products

Ss can debate basinng on some following ideas
For
- Man and woman are equal. Why housewife but not
house husband?
- Woman can also earn a lot of money.
- Woman should be encouraged to work because in
some fields they can do even better than man.
Against
- Man should do the household chores to respect their
housewife more. Woman takes care for the family

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better than man.
- Men are breadwinners of the family thus they should
go out to work to support for the family.
- Man can not be financially dependent on woman and
has no decision.
- House husbands can be looked down upon by the
society
4.4 Implementation

- T gives the topic for debating “House – Husband: Good
or Bad?”
-T devides class into 2 groups: For and Against.
- The two groups have 5 minutes to dicuss, prepare for the
arguments and to collect supporting data to present during
the debate.
- Each group has 3 minutes to present their opening
arguments, 2 chances for rebutal and then comes to
conclusions.
- T becomes the judge to decide who is the winner.
- T gives feedbacks

II.2.4.3.Some videos recorded during the lessons applying debate technique (See
appendix D)
Video 1: “House – Husband: Good or Bad?”
Video 2: “Students should be free from homework?”
II.2.4.4. Some photos indicating the teaching and learning process in class.

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Group Disussion

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II.2.5. Data collection procedure
The research was done for nearly 4 months with students of two
classes 12C1 and 12C9 at Tan Ky High school. The procedures were
summarized as follow:
1. Did the pre-test with both groups.
2. Prepared syllabus for seven speaking lessons as well as prepared the
materials and video camera to record every lesson.
3. Taught speaking lessons for both classes and recorded all speaking
lessons in which the teacher applied debate technique.
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