Sử dụng dạy học theo dự án để dạy kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành du lịch trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Sao Đỏ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST – GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT
***



NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HOA



MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


USING PROJECT WORK TO TEACH ENGLISH SPEAKING
SKILL FOR FIRST YEAR TOURISM – MAJORED STUDENTS
AT SAO DO COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY



SỬ DỤNG DẠY HỌC THEO DỰ ÁN ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH
CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH DU LỊCH
TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG CÔNG NGHIỆP SAO ĐỎ




Major: Methodology
Code: 601410

Supervisor: Từ Thị Minh Thúy, M.A.

HẢI PHÒNG – NĂM 2010


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST – GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT
***


NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HOA



MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

USING PROJECT WORK TO TEACH ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL
FOR FIRST YEAR TOURISM – MAJORED STUDENTS
AT SAO DO COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY

SỬ DỤNG DẠY HỌC THEO DỰ ÁN ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH
CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH DU LỊCH
TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG CÔNG NGHIỆP SAO ĐỎ





Major: Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: Từ Thị Minh Thúy, M.A.










HẢI PHÒNG – NĂM 2010

v
TABLE OF CONTENT
Part I: introduction ………………………………………

1.1 Rationale of the study ………… …………………………………………
1
1.2 Aims of the study……………………………………………………………

2
1.3 Research questions …………………………………………………………
2
1.4 Scope of the study ……………………………………………………………
3
1.5 Design of the study ……………. …………………………………………
3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review ……………………………………

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking skill

1.1. 1 The nature of speaking skill
4
1.1.2 What is the main objective of teaching speaking ?
4
1.1. 3 The role of speaking skill in teaching and learning language
5
1.1.4 Relating factors in English language speaking ……………………
5
1.1. 5 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson.
7
1.1.6 Principles of teaching speaking
8
1.2 Theoretical of Project work

1. 2.1 Definition of project work
8
1.2.2 History of project work ………………………………………………

9
1.2.3 Characteristics of project work
9
1.2.4. Aims of project work …………………………………………………
10
1.2.5 Principles of project work
10
1.2.6 How is project work conducted? ……………………
11
1.2.6.1 Planning ……………………………………………………………

1.2.6.2 Performing

1.2.6.3 Feedback

1.2.7 Evaluation of project work ……………………………………………
11
Chapter 2: data collection and analysis……….………

2.1 Description of the setting

2.1.1 Description of the school …………………………
13
vi
2.1.2 Description of the programme
14
2.1.3 Description of the course …………………………….
14
2.2 Methodology and data collection ……………………………….

2.2.1 Participants …………………………………………………………
15
2.2.2 Materials ……………………………………………………………
15
2.2.3 Methods ……………………………………………………………
Questionnaires ………………………………………………………
Pre – tesst and post – tests …………………………………………
Class Observations ………………………………………………………
17
2.2.4 Procedures ……………………………………………………………
19
Chapter 3: results …………

3.1 Presentation of the data …………………………………………………
20
3.2 Analysis, interpretation of the data and discussion ………………
27
Chapter 4: pedagogical implications

4.1 Suggestions other techniques to promote students to speak English …

4.1.1 Giving more praise and encouragement
34
4.1.2 Error Correction
34
4.2 Recommendation other activities to teach speaking skill.

4.2.1 Using songs ………………………………………………………………
35
4.2.2 Games ……………………………………………………………………

35
4.2.3 Role-play …………………………………………………………………
36
PART III CONCLUSION
37
REFERENCES

Appendices








iv
List of the tables

Table 1: Students’ attitude towards language skills.
20
Table 2: The students’ difficulties in learning English speaking
20
Table 3: Students’ result in the pre-test oral examination
21
Table 4: Statistic from teacher evaluation in the pre-test examination
22
Table 5: Students’ result in the post-test examination
22
Table 6: Statistic from teacher evaluation in the post-test examination

23
Table 7: Factors motivating students in speaking lesson-using project
work.
24
Table 8: Students’ opinion to projects performed in the first year
25
Table 9: Project work improves students’ English speaking competence
25
Table 10: Result of class room observation
26














PART 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the study
English has become more and more popular all over the world. It is the
international language of diplomacy, trade, business, education, aviation etc. There are
more and more people studying it as second language beside their mother tongue. The
motivation of studying English is to get a better work, to have more chance to travel

abroad or simply to get information from the Internet, to read foreign newspapers and
magazines or to assess knowledge in the world. For this reason, English has been taught
everywhere in Viet Nam: in schools, universities etc and it has been a compulsory subject.
Like other languages, the final purpose of studying English is the ability to
communicate with foreigners or native speakers. However, in Viet Nam as well as other
countries where people speak English as a foreign language, how to speak English well has
been still a big problem. According to Bygate,Martin. (1987), speaking, speaking is a
productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems
at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. People can be very good at
grammar, vocabulary but they are very shy when speaking language, especially to
foreigners.
As a teacher of English, I realize that one of the biggest problems of our students
when learning English is speaking skill. From observation, I can see during the period of
speaking, students usually perform activities conducted by teachers. Teacher usually plays
the role of controller and the class is usually teacher-centered. Students always follow the
teacher’s instructions. Students cannot promote their imagination, their creation, and do not
have chance to show their ability of organization. Sometimes, speaking lessons are boring
and the class atmosphere is quiet, which must have been interesting and pleasant. I think
that not only me but other teachers find it embarrassing when teaching speaking skill.
To solve this problem and with an attempt to improve students’ speaking skill, I use
project work in teaching English especially teaching speaking skill.
Project work, factually, is the requirements of teacher to students to prepare the
lesson prior to the class. Project work functions as a bridge between using English in class
and using English in real life situations outside of class (Fried-Booth, 1997). It does this by

2
placing learners in situations that require authentic use of language in order to
communicate (e.g., being part of a team or interviewing others). When learners work in
pairs or in teams, they find they need skills to plan, organize, negotiate, make their points,
and arrive at a consensus about issues such as what tasks to perform, who will be

responsible for each task, and how information will be researched and presented. Within
the group work integral to projects, individuals' strengths and preferred ways of learning
(e.g., by reading, writing, listening, or speaking) strengthen the work of the team as a
whole .Therefore, when the students are asked to prepare things prior to the lesson, the
lesson will attract them more and it will gain success.
Moreover, students at Sao Do College, where I am teaching have a low proficiency
of speaking. Preparing the lesson prior to the class can bring them confidence, activeness
and other benefits. For example; if I ask students to find information and make a
presentation about a famous place in Viet Nam, they have to take responsibility for their
work, find information, make sure for its performance and the next day in class, everything
goes smoothly and be efficient. Therefore, project work has been chosen as one effective
method in teaching speaking English.
1. 2. Aims of the study
This study was carried out with four aims:
- To investigate students’ difficulties in learning speaking English.
- Investigate the difference between the communication activities performance of students
when using traditional approach and that when using project work.
- To investigate factors motivating students in speaking lesson using project work.
- To investigate how project work improved students’ English speaking competence
1. 3. Research questions
The research is carried out to find the answer to the following research questions:
1. What are students’ difficulties in learning speaking English?
2. Does the communication activities performance of students before using project work
significantly differ from that when using project work?
3. What factors motivate students in speaking lesson using project work?
4. How does project work improve students’ English speaking competence?
1.4. Scope of the study

3
The study is concerned with the use of project work to teach speaking skill. It is not

applied to all students at Sao Do College of industry. It is only carried out with students
who are in the first year of tourism major at this college in order to find out a suitable way
to teach speaking skill effectively and students can gain improvement.
1.5. Design of the study.
A part from acknowledgement, table of contents and appendices, this study is
divided into three part
Part I: “Introduction” presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope of
study and its design.
Part II: Development
Chapter 1: Literature Review mentions some concepts relating to the content of the
study: characteristics of communicative competence, communicative language teaching,
speaking skill and areas of project work and the role of project work in language
competence and speaking skill.
Chapter 2: Data collection and analysis consists of two parts. The first part gives
description of research setting in which an overview of school, teachers and students,
programme and course is shown. The second part of this chapter is methodology and data
collection gives brief introduction of participants, materials and methods.
Chapter 3 Results. This chapter composes two parts: Presentation of the data is the
first part; analysis, interpretation of the data and discussion is the second part.
Chapter 4 Pedagogical implications. This chapter shows suggestions of techniques
and activities for teacher in teaching speaking skill.
Part III : Conclusion. This part summarizes the main ideas of the study and give
future direction.

4
PART II DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Theoretical background of speaking skill
1.1. 1 The nature of speaking skill.
Speaking is a process of exchanging information between speakers and listeners
and speaking occurs in almost relations in almost everywhere in everyday life. Pattison
(1987) states that in a conversation, there existing at least two participants : speaker(s) and
listener(s). When the speakers start the message, the listeners decode and responds to the
message in turns.
To be more specific, Hayriye Kayi University of Nevada (Nevada,USA) assumes
that speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" and speaking is a productive skill which
requires a lot of back-up factors like knowledge, confidence, self esteem and enthusiasm.
Speaking a second language, particularly, brings about its own prerequisites: exposure,
consolidation, motivation as well as acknowledgment. Whether we realize it or not, these
determinant factors can be made to exist in a supportive learning environment of an
English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom.
If you ask a question: Which one of the four language skills is the "Odd-One-Out"?
Which one of these is different from the other three? The answer is speaking. The other
three you can do alone, on your own, without anyone else. You can listen to the radio
alone. You can read a book alone. You can write a letter alone. However, you can not
really speak alone.
When understanding the nature of speaking skill, learners and teachers will
recognize the role of speaking skill and the main objectives of studying and teaching
speaking skill.
1.1.2 What is the main objective of teaching speaking?
The most important reason for teaching speaking is to develop oral fluency , that is,

the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably accurately and without undue
hesitation. To meet this objective, learners will have to be brought from the stage where
they merely imitate a model or respond to cues to the point where they can use the
language to express their own ideas and feelings (processes that must to a large extent be in
simultaneous operation).

5
1.1. 3 The role of speaking skill in teaching and learning language.
In teaching theory, language has four macro skills: Listening, speaking, reading and
writing. These four skills are in interactive and supportive relation. Of all the four skills,
speaking is in the central position, as it is fundamental to human communication. A society
is really existing when people communicate. Speaking skills simply do not refer to the way
in which we communicate with another person. It encompasses many other things - the
way in which we respond to the person we are speaking, body gestures including the facial
ones, pitch and tone of our voice and a lot of other things. And the importance of speaking
skills is not just limited to the management world, since effective speaking skills are now
required in each and every aspect of our life. According to Nambiar (1985), speaking when
compared with writing, is the essential form of language and writing is ranked second after
it and derived from it.
In language teaching and learning, speaking plays an important part. The ability to
communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the
learner in school and later in their life. Bygate (1987) also claims that our learners need to
have ability to speak confidently in basic transactions. Especially, speaking is regarded as
the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language. It is indicated that people
who know a language are referred to as “speaker” of that language as if speaking included
all other kinds of knowing. Consequently, a lot of foreign languages learners are primarily
interested in learning to speak.
Therefore; recognizing the importance of speaking skill in language teaching and
learning, teacher should pay attention to teaching speaking skill. Teacher should provide
environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities and

meaningful task that promote oral language. For good language speaking teaching and
learning, both learners and teachers have to know relating factors in English language
speaking; that means they should know what does English language speaking involve?
These factors are listed in the next part.
1.1.4 Relating factors to English language speaking
Learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing language
features, its grammatical and semantic rules". Learners must also acquire knowledge of
how native speakers use the language in socially constructed interactions, which involves
many factors.

6
Hymes (1971) assumes that L2 learners need to know not only the knowledge but
also the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others in different situations and
relationships. His theory of communicative competence (1971) consists of the interaction
of grammatical, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and probabilistic language components.
Based on this framework, we will portray tine abilities underlying speaking proficiency.
Lexis and grammar, the use of a number of common lexical, especially to perform
certain language functions such as agreeing, disagreeing, expressing surprise, approval,
etc.
Connected speech: i.e. common phenomenon in spoken interactions in which so are
modified (assimilation), omitted (elision), added (linking r) or weak (through contractions
and stress patterning). Effective speakers thus need to be not only producing individual
phonemes (as I would have gone) but also to connected speech (I'd've gone).
Expressive devices: native speakers of English change pitch and stress of paretic
parts of utterances, or vary volume and speed to convey meanings beyond words,
especially in face-to-face communication. Students need to recognize deploy some of such
features and if they are to be Effie -communicators.
Compensating language: effective speaking benefits from the language of
negotiation that we use to seek clarification and to show the structure of what we are
saying.

Language processing: effective speakers need to be able to process language in
their own heads and put it into coherent order so that it comes out in forms that are not
only comprehensible but also convey the meaning that are intended. One of the main
reasons for including speaking activities in language lessons is to help students develop
habits of rapid language processing in English.
Interacting with others: most speaking involves interaction with one or more
participants. This means that effective speaking involves a good deal of listening and
understanding of how the other participants are feeling and a knowledge of how
linguistically to take turns or allow others to do so.
Real item information processing: the ability to process the information others tell
us the moment we get it. The longer it takes, the less efficient we are.
Sociolinguistic knowledge: knowledge of language alone does not adequately
prepare learners for effective and appropriate use of the target language. Learners must

7
have competence which involves knowing what is expected socially and culturally by users
of the target language. Understanding the sociolinguistic side of language helps learners
know what comments are appropriate, know how to ask questions during interaction, and
know how to respond nonverbally according to the purpose of the talk.
All relating factors to English speaking skill above provide students with basic
knowledge used in studying speaking; Teachers base on them to determine which
knowledge to teach and which method to apply to improve students’ speaking competence
which start with a successful speaking lesson in class.
1.1. 5 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson.
In a speaking period, it requires everyone to involve, to communicate in order to
exchange information. The core feature of speaking class is the dynamic environment
where students do more rather than listen and get information. A speaking lesson is
effective when the atmosphere is opened, comfortable. Learners must feel safe and
accepted. They need to understand both the risks and rewards of seeking new knowledge
and understanding. The classroom must provide involvement, interaction, and

socialization. The second factor that makes a lesson successful is that learners must be
given frequent opportunities to face new information and experiences in the search for
meaning. However, students are encouraged to do more than just receive information. It is
better when students face new challenges using their past experience without the
dominance of a teacher/giver of information. Finally, though there have interpersonal
relations between learners in a speaking lesson, the students have to discover and perceive
knowledge themselves.
1.1.6 Principles of teaching speaking
Teaching language skills in general and teaching speaking in particular requires
principles that all teachers have to follow for their teaching to be successful and effective:

Output and input: when students produce a piece of language, feedback
from their interlocutor will act as input based on that they modify their output. Such input
can come from the teacher as feedback or prompters.
Texts: texts offer students a model to follow, especially when they are working on
specific functions of language like agreeing, apologizing, refusing, and so on. Texts can
also act as stimuli as a lot of language production grows out of texts that we see or hear. A

8
controversial reading passage may be the springboard for a discussion. (Listening to a tape
in which speakers tell a story or opinion may provide necessary I stimuli for students to
respond based on their own experience.
Reception as part of production: in many situations, production can only continue
in combination with the practice of receptive skills. Thus conversation between two people
is a blend of listening and speaking; comprehension of what is said is necessary for what
the participant says next.
Production enables reception: when students try to speak in certain situations or
within certain genres, they are better attuned to understanding other people speaking in the
same context. In this case, oral production works in a way that helps students with their
listening comprehension.

1.2 Theoretical background of Project work
In the trend of teaching and learning English to communicative language teaching
approach, all teachers try to provide students with opportunities to explore the language
use oral communication. Teachers use techniques, activities to enhance students to speak
and communicate with others people using target language. Teachers are also enthusiastic
to apply new method to teaching and one of these effective method is project work.
1. 2.1 Definition of project work
According to Diana Fried – Booth (1986) and Diana Fried – Booth (1997), project
work is a method which involves students in an authentic learning experience with
language used for genuine communication purpose. It is student – centered and it results is
a tangible end – product Project work focuses on completing a task.
Project work normally involves many resources - time, people and materials - and
learners practice a range of skills and language systems.
The term “project” is used to describe a framework for teacher-student cooperation
that is based on the individual and social needs of the persons involved, as well as the
requirements of the society in which they live. The main aim was to bridge the gap
between “learning for school” and “learning for life”. Education should provide relevant
knowledge and applicable skills for the students, and enable them to participate as
responsible members of a modern democratic society.
1. 2.2 History of project work

9
Root of project work can be seen in the concept of the “work school” that was
developed by Pavel Petrovic Blonskij and Anton Semenoic Markarendo during the
twenties. Their main criticism focused on the curriculum and the methodology that were
applied in schools at that time. To them schools did not seem to meet the needs of young
people or the demands of the society. They stressed the necessity of cooperative action at
school in order to improve the responsibility for social relationships and to provide training
of social skills to students.
In the 1960s the above-mentioned approaches were rediscovered. Mainly schools in

France, Great Britain, Germany and the United States experimented with project work,
which was then seen as a valuable means not only to promote the learning of relevant
knowledge and skills but also to increase mutual respect and understanding in the
environment of schools.
These experiments were very much influenced by the works of education
specialists like Ivan Illich and Paolo Freire, who accused schools of contributing to the
alienation of the individual instead of enabling students to become self-assured and self-
determined adults.
With such a long period of developing, project work has been in favor of using by
teachers due to its positive nature which is drawn in detail by characteristics below.
1.2.3 Characteristics of project work
Wray, Allison.(1998) shows that project work focuses on content learning, real-
world subject matter, and topics of interest to learners; so it bridges the gap between school
learning and learning out of school. Unlike other traditional methods which is teacher-
centered, project work possesses the characteristics of student-centeredness. Using project
work, teacher only acts the role as the facilitator and controller. Students take the main
responsibility to devise activities, carry out and develop the project, perform the final
product in front of the class and it is the students who give evaluation to each project. One
of the most outstanding characteristics of project work is that it emphasizes on
cooperation, which leads to different modes of interaction adopted by students during the
work; supports cooperation rather than competition between students. Students not only
gain language knowledge but also practise ability of organizing and form good personality.
In order to have a complete project, students themselves have to find information from

10
various sources and then processing it; therefore there has been authentic integration of
skills and processing of information from various sources.
As the out put of project work is tangible product so students and teachers are
motivated to study and teach. Using project work ; therefore will increase students’
confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy.

1. 2. 4 Aims of project work
Project Work is a learning experience which aims to provide students with the
opportunity to synthesize knowledge from various areas of learning, and critically and
creatively apply it to real life situations. This process, which enhances students’ knowledge
and enables them to acquire skills like collaboration, communication and independent
learning, prepares them for lifelong learning and the challenges ahead and the main aim
was to bridge the gap between “learning for school” and “learning for life”. Another
important aim of project work is the development of management skills. This means in
particular that students learn to plan the project in a cooperative way. Negotiations take
place in student groups to find out which one of the different proposals mentioned by the
group members seems to lead to the most satisfying results and emphasis is put on the
persuasive power of ideas and arguments. Besides planning the management of project
needs, the distribution of tasks and responsibilities among the group members must also
take place. Finally, information has to be collected, tested and summarized, which again
supports the improvement of management skills.
1. 2. 5 Principles of project work
When using project work to teach language skill, it is compulsory for teacher to follow the
principles of building on previous work that means there is closely connection between the
current task and old knowledge. Moreover, project work must ensure the integration of
speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills; During the period of carrying out project,
there must have incorporation collaborative teamwork, problem solving, negotiating and
other interpersonal skills. Though one of the most outstanding characteristics of project
work is that it emphasizes on cooperation, it doesn’t mean that no one is responsible for the
work. On the contrary, project work requires learners to engage in independent work and
be sure for completion. One difficult but useful principle of project is it challenges learners
to use English in new and different contexts outside the class; only by this way, students
can master their speaking competence quickly. Project work also engages learners in

11
acquiring new information that is important to them which leads to clear outcomes.

Finally, project incorporates self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and teacher evaluation.
1. 2. 6 How is project work conducted?
A project usually goes through three stages: Planning, Performing and Feedback:
1.2.6.1 Planning: The students, guided by the teacher, discuss and make a decision on the
theme and content of their project. They will make a detailed plan, including the objectives
and procedures. Each member’s task and duty is made clear. They also predict their
specific language needs. All the ideas for interviews, visits and surveys are discussed.
1.2.6.2 Performing: Carrying out the project is the most important part. The students now
come out of the classroom to perform whatever tasks they have planned, e.g., having
interviews, making recordings, conducting surveys and gathering materials. It is at this
stage that the students will fully show their talent and develop their abilities. It is also an
important stage for them to develop their language abilities and integrate the four skills of
listening, speaking, reading and writing.
1.2.6.3 Feedback: The feedback session includes reviewing, discussions and a final
presentation given by students in different ways of chart, booklet, PowerPoint or an oral
presentation. This is not only a process of project work reporting, but also a process of peer
learning, reviewing and evaluation. Comments from peers and the teacher are of great
value in helping students improve their project work and build confidence, which will
stimulate and further on their follow-up activities and more project work.
1.2. 7 Evaluation of project work.
Learners can evaluate themselves and each other through role plays, learner-to-
learner interviews, and writing activities. They can become familiar with completing
evaluation forms related to general class activities, and they can write about their learning
in weekly journals where they reflect on what they learned, how they felt about their
learning, and what they need to continue to work on in the future. They can even identify
what should be evaluated and suggest how to do it.
Assessment can be done by teachers, peers, or oneself. Teachers can observe the
skills and knowledge that learners use and the ways they use language during the project.
Learners can reflect on their own work by expressing how they feel about their work and
progress, and what skills and knowledge they are gaining.

12
Assessment can also be done through small-group discussion with guided
questions such as what did your classmates do very well in the project? Was there anything
that needed improvement? What? Why? The ability to identify or label the learning that is
taking place builds life-long learning skills. Questionnaires, checklists, or essays can help
learners do this by inviting them to reflect critically on the skills and knowledge they are
gaining.

13
CHAPTER 2 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
2.1 Description of the setting
2.1.1 Description of the school
Sao Do College of industry locates at Chi Linh district, Hai Duong province. Founded in
1969, it used to be vocational school for workers of mining. In 2005, it became college of
Industry. There are 13 departments with about 10 thousands students of various majors
from techniques to economic, tourism and foreign language. The teaching staff consists
of 500 teachers. Many of them are young so we are hoping for further development in the
future.
Teachers of English are in tourism and foreign language faculty of this college. All
of 15 English teachers have degree of university and half of them are studying master
level. One forth of them is in the age of above 45. Two third of young teachers were
students at university of foreign languages – Ha Noi national university or at Ha Noi
university and the rest graduated from other universities in the country; so they have
experience and knowledge in teaching. In recent years, teaching English follows the
approach “learner-centered” and focuses on communicative competence. In that case,
English teachers at our college try to apply new methods to teach English especially
speaking skill to help students have better communicative competence after graduation.
Students in the first year of tourism major at our college are mainly from 18 to 21
years old. Like other students here, they come from locations in Hai Duong province and
from other districts in surrounding areas. Most of them studied at schools in urban areas
and their purpose of learning English is examine-orientation; thus, they did not pay
attention to speaking skill. Though their grammatical competence is quite good, their
communicative competence is in low level. Expressing their ideas in oral form or speaking

English or discussing before crowded to them is a very difficult problem. Many of students
always ask me how to improve speaking skill or communicative competence or how to
communicate with foreigners confidently-a compulsory requirement to a professional tour
guide. To solve that problem, I mainly used activities, techniques that promote students’
speaking skill. Using Project work in teaching speaking skill, to my teaching experience, is
really useful and efficient.
As mentioned above, teachers of English at our college try their best to teach
speaking skill effectively as they know that the final goal of learning English is to

14
communicate. However, it is difficult because students lack of vocabulary and background
knowledge. Besides, methods of teaching are not suitable and types of activity are not
interesting; so they do not attract students. In a speaking lesson, students usually do
exercises or tasks in the books or syllabus. It is the teacher who devises activities and
controls students. For that reason, students are sometimes passive; they cannot promote
their creation. Some formal types of exercise for speaking skill are: work in pair, ask and
answer to get information or work in-group, describe a famous place that you like. Most of
these tasks are done in class, students are rarely required to prepare at home prior to the
lesson. Students’ presentation is usually simple with not much useful and interesting
information; their performance is not skillful. Teachers really have not found suitable way
to teach and students, in fact, have no motivation and passion to study speaking skill. In
case of having motivation, students usually feel bored because they get a little
improvement.
2.1.2 Description of the programme.
The syllabus used for teaching in our college is in-house materials. All the lessons
are about tourism theme such as beauty spots, historical places, festivals with the purpose
to provide students with necessary information, which is useful to them in their career
later. There are 16 lessons and each lesson composes five parts: reading, speaking,
listening, writing and language focus. Like the other three parts, speaking period goes
through three steps: pre-speaking in which teacher raises easy questions for students to

answer to get familiar with the main part and teacher mention new vocabulary. The second
part is while- speaking. This part contains tasks or exercises that students are required to
complete. The last part comes with the name post - speaking. This part usually has
exercises of synthesizing information in the lesson and then student gives presentation
individually. The syllabus itself consists of 16 lessons with various topics relating tourism.
All the topics are interesting; however to get efficiency for speaking skill, there need to
have a more interesting types of activities and a more dynamic method of teaching and
learning. To improve condition, I have applied project work to teach speaking skill that I
think is a great way to promote learner autonomy.
2.1.3 Description of the course
The course that I choose to study started on September, 2009 and will last in three years
(2011). There are sixty students and divided into two classes. Like other courses, the

15
students of this course have to study English in two and a half school year. In the first term
of the first year, students studied 90 periods of basic English. From the second term,
students study English for tourism and the first ESP syllabus is for one hundred and twenty
periods. All the lessons in this syllabus are about destination of tourism ; from beauty
landscape to historical places such as Ha Long, Sapa, Con Son; from festivals to national
parks. In the next years, ESP syllabuses focus on English for hotels and restaurants and
other relating subjects. The objective of this course is to train professional tour guides with
high proficiency in English in order to serve in tourism industry.
2.2 Methodology and data collection
2.2.1 Participants
This study was carried out among two classes of first year tourism major in tourism
and foreign language faculty – Sao Do college of industry in the school year 2009-2010.
There were sixty students at the age from 18 to 21. They are forty-five female and fifteen
male. These students had at least 3 years of learning English at high schools where the
extensive vocabulary and grammatical structures are the main focus. During the first term
at Sao Do College of Industry, they finished 90 periods of General English which focuses

on developing 4 skills: listening, speaking, writing, and reading. Thus, they are supposed to
have an intermediate level of proficiency in English, they have sound knowledge of
Grammar, and to some extent are able to speak in English. Most of them want to learn
English firstly for a future job, and secondly for better understanding of the foreign tourists
When doing this study, students were encouraged to express their ideas and
opinions directly which made the result of the study have high accuracy and helped to
assess the method correctly.
2.2.2 Materials
Richard and Rodger cited in Nunan (1991) view materials as detail specification of
content and guidance to teacher. Teaching materials composes two types :institutionally
prepared materials (published text book) and in-house materials. In-house materials as
Richard (2001) is his or her own prepared materials. Materials that has been used in
teaching in our class and in this study are some kinds of project. There are some kinds of
projects that have been used in teaching language in our class. The first kind is media and
the outcome of which are newspapers or magazines of students themselves. The second
type may be about culture. Students do a project about holidays, festivals, pagodas,

16
temples…and the outcome may be a complete power point including images and
presentation of a tourist destination; or the outcome may be a guide book for tourists. To
help students get familiar with the work of planning a trip, project of planning trips is
shown. Students have to investigate tourists destinations and explore information so that at
the end of the project, students can organize a complete tour. Hotel project is also useful
for student. Students are responsible for making a hotel staff portrait gallery which reveal a
full description of each hotel staff’s work. For a clearer view, the study mentions in detail
two projects
Planning a trip ( Appendix 4)
The objectives of this project are to aware students of work and duty of planning a
trip and helps students have the ability to organize a trip for tourists. The reason for
choosing this project is that Planning and organizing a trip is an important work of a tour

guide; Students having skill of organizing a trip will find it easier in their work later.
To do this project, the teacher has to require students to determine destination of
rips and their routine; from that students collect and classify information. To make a tour,
students have to lists things to do for a trip, e.g. means of transportation, types of
accommodation, booking tickets, types of service to provide to tourists, stopover, entrance
ticket to tourist side…., set routine on the map to find necessary information, Select ways
of gathering information: through internet, newspapers, magazines or interview direct
people.
The teacher has to organizes students to work in group of five. Point one leader,
one secretary. The leader allocates duty to other members of the group. The secretary
keeps and classifies information. The group has to drawn a tourist map for themselves,
which shows the routine of the trip. Students can use various color for different points.
Moreover, students can use symbols to illustrate tourist destination, e.g. temple, museum,
church , locations etc. After completing project, students use Map, color pen, ruler,
PowerPoint to perform their presentation in form of a discussion. Students make questions
for members in their group and they themselves answer to reveal information. Students
point at the map and pretend to be a tour guide. This tour guide will provide information
about the trip and the destination. For further information, other students in class will raise
questions and replies will be made by members of group.


17
Hotel Staff portrait gallery
The objectives of this project is to aware students of works, position and duty of
each person in a hotel. The project has been chosen for the reason that in a hotel, there are
many jobs that students or new trainees can not recognize and this could provide a starting
point for discussion who the staff is.
To do this project, the teacher has to require students to gather information about
name, work and duty of staff in hotel. Moreover, students need select pictures or
photographs from newspapers, magazines or people from real life to illustrate then arrange

information in the easiest way to understand.
Equipments need for this project are broadsheet, pencils and charts. The project
successes or not depends much on the preparation of students. It is the students duty to
collect information and pictures relating staff in hotel by interviewing them about their
work. Although students are the author of the final products, the teacher has to organize
students. Students make group of four or five, point out a leader who controls the whole
group and then use various ways to conduct the project. The final product is shown in
paper or on PowerPoint. During the presentation, each student of the group takes the
responsibility to present name, work, and position of some staffs. When giving
information, students pointing at the pictures to illustrate. Finally, the leader of the group
combines these parts by giving tree-diagram for these staff and make conclusion for the
presentation. After the presentation, other students in the class give questions about things
they care and they do not know or are not sure. At this time, the leader points any member
of the group to reply the questions. The teacher can also participate in this process to make
the presentation clearer.
2.2.3 Methods
With an attempt to make the study valuable and reliable, I use both research methods:
qualitative and quantitative. These methods includes:
Questionnaires
Pre – tests and post – tests
Classroom observation
The questionnaires for the students.
The reason for choosing questionnaires is that it gives exact data and its results are
objective.

18
The questionnaire was adapted from the questionnaire designed by Rajit Kumar
(1996) in Research Methodology. It was conducted in Vietnamese.
The questionnaire was designed with 2 main parts.
Part 1 was to get students’ information about their gender, age, place of birth, the

duration they have learnt English.
Part 2 was designed to elicit students’ opinions on English speaking and their
opinions on project work used in English speaking learning. The part includes 6 questions,
5 of which are closed questions, one is open-ended question.
The purpose of the questionnaires is to investigate students’ attitude to English
speaking and their comments on project work and their expectations on the textbooks as
well as the teachers.
The first questionnaire investigates students’ opinion to the importance of language
skill. Questionnaire 2 examines students’ difficulties in learning speaking English.
Questionnaire 3 investigate factors motivating students in English speaking lesson using
project work. The fourth questionnaire investigate students’ opinion performed in the first
year. Questionnaire 5 examine how project work improved students’ English speaking
competence and the last questionnaire aims to collect other ideas from learners.
Pre-tests and post-tests
The teacher conducted an oral examination using questions and situations designed
by staff in the faculty and ten aspects of evaluation (listed in appendix 2). After the exam,
the teacher gave students score and stored them for later computation, analysis and
comparison with the scores of the students in the post-test examination.
After the pre-test oral examination, the teacher began to use project work in
teaching speaking skill. The duration of time for each lesson was ninety minutes with ten
minutes break. The teacher taught twice a week. After two months of applying the new
method in teaching, the teacher conducted another oral examination using other questions
and situations but use the same ten aspects of evaluation as above to give students scores.
Then the teacher started to gather all of the data and computerize the scores
obtained from the pre and post-test oral examination.
Observation
The observation was carried out in the first and second semester of the school year 2009-
2010, the class performance was observed in two classes in Tourism and Foreign Language

19

Faculty. Each class performance lasted two periods (total 90 minutes). Teachers have taken
notes on the activities of the students
2.2.4 Procedures
Before applying project work to teaching speaking skill, the teacher used traditional
method to teach English speaking skill to students and at the end of the first term, the
teacher conducted an oral examination using questions and situations designed by staff in
the faculty and the teacher gave students scores basing on ten aspects listed in appendix 2.
The oral examination of first term was considered the pre-test.
The teacher, then started to apply project work to teach speaking skill. The
intervention occurred in two months.
During the first 7 weeks, the classroom performance was observed by the teacher.
The detailed notes were kept and interpreted, and then the conclusions were drawn out.
In addition, during the time after the class, the teacher usually had talks with
students to investigate their opinion about the new method.
The last week, the teacher distributed questionnaires to the students. Students had
15 minutes to complete; then the teacher collected questionnaires and analyzed them.
After two months, the teacher conducted another oral examination and this was
considered the post-test. The scores of students in the post-test will be computerized and
compared with those of the pre-test. After interpreting the data, discussion and conclusion
will be given

20
CHAPTER 3
RESULTS
3.1 Presentation of the data
Table 1: Students’ attitude towards language skills.
The most important skill
Number of
students
Percentage
1. Listening
15/60
25%
2. Speaking
37/60
61.6%
3.Reading
4/60
6.7%
4. Writing
4/60
6.7%
When being asked a question: “Which English language skill do you think is the most
important?”, 37/60 students (61.6%) had the answer “speaking”, 15/60 agreed with the
answer “listening” and only eight of them equally shared the rest two answers “reading and
writing”.
Table 2: The students’ difficulties in learning English speaking
Difficulties

Number of
students
Percentage
a. Pronunciation
45
75%
b. Grammar knowledge
42
70%
c. Short of time for speaking
21
35%
d. Boring activities
33
55%
e. Boring topics
29
48.3%
f. Poor lexical resources
49
81.7%
g. Lack of English speaking environment
50
83.3%
h. Poor sociolinguistic knowledge
45
75%
i. Teacher discourages students
12
20%

j. Your classmates usually use mother tongue and
mind communicating in English
47
78.3%
Students had to face many difficulties and some of them are listed in table 2. To 50/60
students (83.3%), lack of English speaking environment was the most difficult; the next
difficulties were poor lexical resources (81.7%) and the habit of using mother tongue in