USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng các hoạt động thảo luận nhằm nâng cao động lực và tr

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



LÃ THỊ HƯỜNG


USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND
SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT
HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION
RESEARCH STUDY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THẢO LUẬN NHẰM
NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC VÀ TRÌNH ĐỘ NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ
HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)


M.A MINOR THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 6014.0111




Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


LÃ THỊ HƯỜNG


USING DISCUSSION ACTIVTIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION AND
SPEAKING PROFICIENCY OF SECOND-YEAR EFL STUDENTS AT HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY: AN ACTION
RESEARCH STUDY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG THẢO LUẬN NHẰM
NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC VÀ TRÌNH ĐỘ NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ
HAI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI)


M.A MINOR THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 6014.0111
Supervisor: Nguyễn Đức Hoạt, Dr



Hanoi, 2014
DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work for the Degree of Master in

TESOL at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and
International Studies - Vietnam National University, and that it has not been
previously submitted to this University or any other institution in application for
admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications.


L Th Hường

H Ni 2014

















ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor,
Dr. Nguyen Duc Hoat for his helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and

encouragement in the writing of this study. Without his guidance and help, this work
would not have been completed.
My sincere thanks go to all the staff at the Department of Post-graduate Studies,
Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies for giving me assistance
and the lecturers who conducted the Master's course for providing me with valuable
knowledge.
I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my dear students of
class KT1713, whose participation in and dedication to the research remain
invaluable have been acknowledged. Without their precious support, the thesis
would not have taken shaped.
I am also indebted to my colleagues at Hanoi University of Business and
Technology for their enthusiastic assistance and co-operation.
Finally, the support extended to me by the members of my family has been
immeasurable. I would also like to express my thanks to my parents and my
husband for their wholehearted encouragement.

Ha Noi, December 29
th
2013
La Thi Huong





ABSTRACT
The study was carried out with an attempt to increase motivation and speaking
proficiency of the second-year EFL students at Hanoi University of Business and
Technology by using discussion activities. The subjects participating in the research
were 14 second-year EFL students in Economics Faculty at Hanoi University of

Business and Technology. To achieve the desired aims of the study, an action
research was carried out. Class observation and survey questionnaires for students
were used to measure students' level of motivation before and after the
implementation. Besides, to clearly see the change in students' speaking proficiency
after applying discussion activities in speaking lessons, oral tests were also used as
data collection method.
The results of the study showed that discussion activities helped increase
motivation of almost all of the students in speaking lessons. In addition, the results
also revealed that after using discussion activities in speaking lessons, some of the
students could improve their scores in the post-test. Although there was not too
much change, it was proved that discussion activities played a certain role in
improving the students' speaking proficiency.












LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLES:
Table 1.1. Students' oral evaluation criteria 13
Table 2.1. The timetable of the action implementation 25
Table 3.1. Students' speaking opportunities during speaking lessons 32

Table 3.2. Students' comments on discussion activities 35
Table 3.3. Results of Pre-test 38
Table 3.4. Results of students' speaking performance in the pre-test 39
Table 3.5. Results of Post-test 40
Table 3.6. Results of students' speaking performance in the post-test 40

FIGURES:
Figure 2.1. Kemmis and McTaggart's action research spiral 23
Figure 3.1. Students' levels of interest in English speaking lessons and discussion
activities 31
Figure 3.2. Students' difficulties in learning speaking English 32
Figure 3.3. Students' preferences for types of discussion activities 33
Figure 3.4. Students' levels of motivation 34
Figure 3.5. Students' levels of interest when participating in discussion activities 35
Figure 3.6. Students' preferences for discussion activities 36
Figure 3.7. Overall class motivation scores for all students 37






TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1

2. Aims of the study 3
3. Research questions 3
4. Significance of the study 3
5. Scope of the study 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Speaking skill 4
1.1.1. The importance of teaching and learning speaking skill 4
1.1.2. EFL speaking processes 4
1.2. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 6
1.3. Discussion and students' speaking proficiency 7
1.3.1. The role of discussion in improving students' speaking proficiency 7
1.3.2. Types of Discussion Activities 8
1.3.2.1. Brainstorming activities 8
1.3.2.2. Organizing activities 9
1.3.2.3. Compounding activities 11
1.4. Assessing speaking skill 12
1.4.1. Oral tests 12
1.4.2. Speaking proficiency testing criteria 13
1.5. Motivation 15
1.5.1. Definitions 15
1.5.2. Types of Motivation in language learning 16
1.5.3. Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning 16
1.5.4. Techniques for improving students’ motivation in speakinglessons 18
1.6. Previous research 20
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22
2.1. Research design 22
2.2. Setting and subjects of the study 23
2.3. Research procedures 24
2.3.1. Conducting preliminary investigation 25

2.3.2. Planning the action 26
2.3.2.1. Choosing discussion activities 26
2.3.2.2. Preparing the discussion activities 26
2.3.3. Implementing the action 26
2.3.4. Observing the action 27
2.3.5. Reflecting the action 27
2.4. Data collection instruments 28
2.4.1. Survey questionnaires 28
2.4.2. Class observation 28
2.4.3. Oral tests 28
2.4.3.1. Pre-test and Post-test 29
2.4.3.2. The reliability and validity of the tests 29
2.5. Data analysis 30
2.6. Summary 30
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31
3.1. Levels of students' motivation 31
3.1.1. Pre-action questionnaire results 31
3.1.2. After action findings 34
3.1.2.1. After action questionnaire findings 34
3.1.2.2. Class observation findings 37
3.2. Students' speaking proficiency 38
3.2.1. Pre-test results 38
3.2.2. Post-test results 39
3.3. Reflection 41
PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 44
1. Summary of major findings 44
2. Recommendations 44
3. Limitations of the study 45
4. Suggestions for further study 46
REFERENCES 47

APPENDICES I





1

PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study
One of the main purposes of studying English is to use it for communication.
According to O'Malley and Pierce (1996), among the four skills, speaking seems to
be an important skill that learners should acquire. Therefore, to teach learners of
English to be able to speak English well is said to be one of primary goals in
learning the target language.
However, for non-native EFL speakers it is not easy to communicate effectively
in English because learners of English have to master many important elements of
English including vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and comprehension.
This requires teachers of English to apply creative teaching methods to the teaching
and learning speaking skill so that they can motivate their students to take part in
speaking activities and also increase their speaking proficiency.
At Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT), the teachers of
English have used a lot of activities with the aim to increase motivation of their
students and their speaking proficiency as well. Among the activities given in the
course book namely "Market Leader - Pre-intermediate", discussion activities such
as guessing, comparing, surveys or detecting differences are usually used in
speaking classes. During the teaching and learning English speaking for the
second-year EFL students, however, many problems arising have challenged the
teachers and their students to their goal. The most apparent problem is that some
students seem to have no or little interest in the discussion activities. Some do not

find the activities interesting enough; therefore, they do not join in the activities at
all or just join them when they are asked to do. Even for some others who are
willing to take part in the activities do not have enough vocabulary and background
knowledge, or sometimes cannot work with friends to do a certain task effectively;
therefore, they gradually lose interest in the discussion activities. Another problem
is that some teachers use the same discussion activities in almost speaking classes
2

and do not change or create some more interesting ones, which may cause students'
low interest. As a matter of fact, many of the students at the university are quite lazy
and do not spend enough time learning English, especially speaking skill at home.
Besides, the students are always asked to do tasks in formal or informal cooperative
groups in class only without any preparation before class.
Because of the problems arising when using these above discussion activities,
the researcher decided to choose two activities - debates and layout problems. The
two activities were used with the aims to increase the students' self-study and their
cooperative learning. The discussion activities may be more challenging than the
others which have ever been used, but they are quite useful if students spend more
time reading and searching for information before coming to class. When taking
part in the two activities, students are supposed to work both in formal cooperative
groups and base groups. It means that besides participating in different groups as
they are asked to do by the teacher in speaking class, they are often asked to join in
a certain group at the beginning of the first semester. The students need to study by
themselves and work together at home to fulfill the given tasks. In this way,
students will be provided with an opportunity to develop long-term, mutually
supportive relationships.
To improve the current situation of teaching and learning English speaking at
the university, action research can be considered as more suitable because action
research solves practical problems, classroom problems and for development of
educational practices rather than experimental research which solves the practical

problems by putting those into social psychological laboratory and finds out the real
causes and remedies for those problems. Furthermore, because of the limit of time,
by using action research the researcher could find out an immediate and quick
solution of the problems.
All these conditions, henceforth, offered the researcher a chance to conduct a
study on "Using Discussion Activities to Increase Motivation and Speaking
Proficiency of Second-Year EFL Students at Hanoi University of Business and
3

Technology: An Action Research Study.”
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at finding out whether discussion activities are used effectively
in motivating the EFL second-year students at HUBT in learning speaking skill.
Besides, the study also investigates how discussion activities can increase speaking
proficiency of the students.
3. Research questions
To fulfill the aims of the research, the two following research questions should
be answered:
1. How effective are discussion activities in motivating the students in learning
speaking skill?
2. To what extent, do discussion activities increase speaking proficiency of the
students?
4. Significance of the study
It is hoped that the results of the study will provide the researcher as well as
English language teachers with the understanding of discussion activities, students'
motivation in speaking skill and their speaking proficiency. Secondly, the results of
the study may be useful for teachers of English at Hanoi University of Business and
Technology in particular and those in Vietnam in general to improve their speaking
lessons, which in turn, may result in the improvement of their students' motivation
in speaking skill and their English speaking proficiency.

5. Scope of the study
Discussion is one of the most effective speaking activities in speaking
classroom. However, due to the limitation of time and human resources, this study
only attempts to do research on a certain group of 14 second-year EFL students
from the Faculty of Accounting at HUBT. The study merely focuses on examining
the effectiveness of using discussion activities in increasing motivation in learning
speaking skill of the second-year EFL students at HUBT, and exploring how much
discussion activities can increase speaking proficiency of the students.
4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Speaking Skill
1.1.1. The importance of teaching and learning speaking skill
Among the four skills in English (speaking, listening, writing, and reading),
speaking skill plays a crucial part in helping learners learn a language effectively.
Pattison (1992) points out that when people mention knowing or learning a
language, they mean being able to speak the language. And according to Flohr and
Paesler (2006), speaking skill is the most important one in learning a foreign
language. Flohr and Paesler (2006) also emphasize that "the focus in learning a
foreign language is on communication activities and expressive abilities and the
goal is to become a fluent speaker." It cannot be denied that teaching and learning
speaking skill deserves as much attention as or even more attention that the others.
1.1.2. EFL Speaking Processes
Considered as a major focus on language teaching, "speaking" catches much
attention of linguists. In Oxford Advanced Dictionary, the definition of speaking is
"to express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc., by or as talking and it
involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological
(articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages." Bygate (1987) defines speaking as oral
expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm

and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to
convey the right meaning. He argues that speaking is a skill which deserves
attention every bit as much as literacy skills, in both first and second language. The
learners are often expected to speak with their high confidence to implement their
most basic transactions. Therefore, it is the vehicle of social relationships, ranking,
of professional advancement and of business. It is also a medium through which
much language is learned, and which, for many, is particularly conductive for
learning.
5

Speaking can be considered as one of the most important skills for EFL students
but quite difficult for them to master. There are many problems that EFL students
may have such as lack of vocabulary, grammar or too little practice. There are four
main problems in speaking as suggested by Ur (1996: 121) which are:
Inhibition
Unlike reading, writing or listening activities, speaking requires some degree of
real-time exposure to an audience. EFL students are often inhibited about trying to
say things in a foreign language in the classroom: worried about mistakes or simply
shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
Nothing to say
Even not being inhibited, students often complain that they cannot think of
anything to say.
Low or uneven participation
Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard; and in large
groups, this means that each one will have only little talking time. This problem is
compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while other speaks very
little or not a tall.
Mother tongue use
In classes where all, or a number of the learners share the mother tongue, it is
easier for them to use their mother tongue because it looks naturally, and because

they feel less 'exposed' if they are speaking their mother tongue. Therefore, most of
the students are not disciplined in using the target language in the learning process.
Like many other EFL students, the students at HUBT also face such problems
during the process of learning speaking skill. The students' speaking proficiency is
quite low. In addition, they are not motivated enough to learn English, and quite
reluctant to speak caused by linguistic factors, cultural factors and/ or psychological
factors. Although the students have learned English for at least seven years, many of
them cannot communicate with the others or find themselves too lazy to learn
English skills well, particularly speaking skill.
6

To sum up, speaking is believed to be one of the most challenging skills and
should be paid more attention in both learning and teaching. As teachers, they need
to be aware of any problems that their students may face in speaking class.
1.2. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
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 is based on his/her ability to speak fluently and
comprehensively. There are four main characteristics of a successful speaking
activity, which are introduced by Ur (1996).
First of all, learners have to talk a lot. As much as possible of the period time
allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious,
but often most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses. In other words
in successful speaking tasks, the students talk a lot in the foreign language. One
common problem in speaking activities is that students often produce one or two
simple utterances in the foreign language and spend the rest of the time chatting in
their native language. Another common problem is that the teacher talks too much
of the time, thus taking away valuable practice time from the students.
Secondly, participation is even. It is the fact that classroom discussion is not
dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak and

contributions are fairly evenly distributed. Whether the task takes place among the
whole class or in small groups, a successful task should encourage speaking from as
many different students as possible. The task should be designed in a way so that
the outspoken students do not dominate discussions. When necessary, the teacher
may interfere to guarantee equal opportunities for students of different levels.
The third characteristic is that motivation is high. It means learners are eager to
speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about
it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective. Research has
shown that motivation is one of the most important variables in successful language
learning. Teachers can do a lot to increase and maintain the motivation of students
7

by the types of tasks that they organize in class. Students are eager to speak, when
the topic is interesting or there is a clear objective that must be reached. Again,
great care should be taken to make sure the task is in line with the students' ability
to deal with the task. If the task is too easy, the students may think it is childish and
thus lose interest.
Then the last characteristic is that language is of an acceptable level. Learners
express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each
other and of an acceptable level of language accuracy. In a successful speaking task,
the language is at the right level. The task must be designed so that students can
complete the task successfully with language that they have. If the students lack too
much vocabulary, the task will become frustrating and the students are likely to give
up or revert to the native language.
In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the
criteria mentioned above. Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts to
employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentioned-above
criteria. The two discussion activities applied in this study - debates and layout
problems, can help increase students' participation in speaking tasks, and language
used in these activities is of an acceptable level because it is based on what they

have learned in the lessons.
1.3. Discussion and students' speaking proficiency
1.3.1. The role of discussion in improving students' speaking proficiency
It has been mentioned by many researchers that discussion plays an important
part in the process of learning English speaking. According to Killen (1996: 27),
discussion is an appropriate technique for EFL teachers because it helps students to
think critically about the subject and develop their skills of analysis, synthesis and
evaluation, rather than just memorize facts. Discussion also helps encourage
students to work together and share their ideas by talking about them publicly, and
develops students' communication skills such as stating their ideas clearly, listening
8

to others, or responding appropriately to others. In addition, through discussion,
students can generate their own ideas, and discover new knowledge through sharing
ideas in groups. Specifically, when being given a certain task to discuss after the
lessons, students are supposed to work in pairs or in groups analyzing the task
together. Each member of the groups has to share his or her idea with the others,
learn to listen to his or her friends, and cooperate with friends so that they can fulfill
the given task. In long term, students can develop their critical thinking and
cooperative learning skill; hence, students are able to improve their speaking
proficiency.
Killen's concept above is in line with Brown's notion. Brown (2001: 178)
affirms some essential advantages of group discussion in EFL teaching: students are
able to generate interactive language; students are embraced by an effective climate;
students are to promote learner responsibility and autonomy; and students are able
to understand toward individualizing instruction. In other words, when discussing in
groups, students are free to share their ideas with friends with a friendly atmosphere
because they work with a small group of other students. Through group discussion,
students are able to practice the target language and make contribution to their
group work. It requires each of them to be more autonomous and responsible for

fulfilling the task given to their groups. It can be summed up that the strong points
of discussion technique are students are able to promote their high-level thinking,
initiative learners, autonomous language users, caring students and high responsible
students.
In short, there are many other researchers sharing similar points of view with
the two authors that discussion has great effect in improving students' speaking
proficiency.
1.3.2. Types of discussion activities
There are a lot of activities used in discussion; however, focusing on
task-centred discussions Ur (1981: 25) suggests that the activities should be divided
into three sections - brainstorming, organizing, and compound.
9

1.3.2.1. Brainstorming activities
Brainstorming is the techniques whereby members of the group let loose a hail
of possible solutions or suggestions, in random order as they occur to them. There
are some common activities as the following ones:
● Guessing Games
Guessing is one of the simplest and most well-known brainstorming activities that
exist, and is very easily transformed into a group discussion game. There are always
two sides, called here the 'knower(s)' and the 'guesser(s)'. The guessing game lends
itself to use by classes whose English is comparatively limited, since it is based on
the simplest types of utterances: simple questions or statements, brief phrases,
single words.
● Finding connections
The thinking basis here is the search for common denominators or links between
different items. Unlike guessing games, these activities are unsuitable for the very
earliest stages language learning; they can be used only with students who have a
wide enough vocabulary to cope with the very extensive imaginative invention
required, and who have a reasonable mastery of the tense system.

● Ideas from a central theme
This in a way is the converse of the process of finding connections. Instead of the
students being given elements and looking for a common base, the base is given and
related elements sought. The language needed may be very simple, hence some
variations of this exercise are suitable for elementary levels.
● Implications and interpretation
It is really a slightly more sophisticated version of Ideas from a central theme. It
consists of exploring the implications and interpretations of a more or less
ambiguous stimulus, which may take the form of an imaginary situation, a picture, a
noise, or a doodle. The language may be relatively simple, but it is not limited to
specific structures or vocabulary.
1.3.2.2. Organizing activities
10

● Comparing
These exercises are based on contrast and analogy: that is to say, they require
students to discuss and define differences and similarities between various elements
in order to carry out a task of classification. As regards language input, advanced
students need no preparation for these activities whereas elementary ones should be
familiar with some certain expressions used in comparing.
● Detecting differences
Also based on contrast and analogy, these exercises are, however, slightly different
from those just described. The material does not consist of a collection of simple
discrete items, but of compound, sometimes complicated, stimuli: pictures,
descriptions, stories. Two, or possibly three, such stimuli are given to the students in
such a way that not observe all of them simultaneously: they have to detect
differences by remembering what has been said before or by comparing someone
else's version with their own.
● Putting in order
This task requires students to evaluate connected pieces of evidence and recognize

causal, temporal or professional relationships between them. The group is given
several pictures, sentences or passages and asked to put them into some sort of
logical order. The picture-sequence exercise is more appropriate for younger or
more elementary classes while the sentence-sequence for older or more advanced
ones.
● Priorities
A specific application of the concept of ordering is that of defining priorities. The
language used consists mostly of comparisons, and lower-level classes may benefit
from a little practice in comparative and superlative constructions beforehand.
● Choosing candidates
This is another exercise which requires assessment and comparison, but here
participants are asked to choose only one item for a certain purpose. Many different
language functions may be needed and the number of different structures needed is
11

correspondingly large.
● Layout problems
These are exercises involving some preliminary reading, and are suitable for mature,
advanced students. The basic procedure is similar to that of Choosing candidates.
● Combined versions
This activity begins rather like picture differences, but here texts are used instead of
pictures, and the identification of differences is only the preliminary. The main task
before students is to compare the different variations and decide which is right, on
the basis of common sense and consistency.
1.3.2.3. Compounding activities
● Composing letters
The task is to compose appropriate responses to letters that are in some way
provocative: advising, insulting, appealing, complaining, threatening - anything, in
fact, which stimulates a reaction from the recipient. Such letters are not hard to
prepare, no specific set of language items need preparation, and also the

organization of this exercise is very simple.
● Debates
There are some limitations and disadvantages of the conventional class debate as a
vehicle for fluency practice: the limited scope of its subjects, and the relative lack of
participation. However, many students particularly the more adult and intellectual,
enjoy this kind of discussion because the skills of oratory and dialectics are learner
and exercised in a debate better than anywhere else.
● Publicity campaigns
The task is to plan a publicity campaign, consisting of a series of measures whose
objective is to convince the public of something. Apart from choosing a subject and
thinking a little how she would tackle it, the teacher has virtually nothing to prepare
for this activity. Nor are there any particular structures or lexical items which need
revising with the students.
● Surveys
12

Most students are familiar with opinion polls or surveys, so they are easily adapted
for use in this type of discussion. In order for this to be done in the classroom, the
sources of information or the population samples to be taken are limited to the
actual members of the class.
● Planning projects
The activity combines elements from many of the other exercises, may run into
several sessions, and is suitable for mature students. The discussions are
correspondingly long and complex, but also very absorbing and involving.
Above the discussion activities, there are some that are often used in speaking
class at HUBT. They are guessing games, comparing, surveys or detecting
differences. However, the situation of teaching and learning English speaking has
proved that some of the activities are not challenging and interesting enough; some
cannot give students opportunities to practice their cooperative learning. The two
discussion activities used in this study are debates and layout problems. The

students were supposed to work in small groups and then discuss with the whole
class. The first activity is debates which may have some disadvantages including the
relative lack of participation. Therefore, to increase students' involvement in the
activities, the researcher - teacher divided that her class into three or four groups,
each of whom is given a motion for debates: two of these supporting different
points of view. This activity is suitable for multi-level students. The second activity
- layout problems may require students to have some preliminary reading before
working out the solution to the problems. By giving students some tasks at home
requiring them to search for and read the materials in individuals and in groups at
home, students will have something to say and discuss in class.
1.4. Assessing speaking skill
1.4.1. Oral tests
A question for a teacher is how students' speaking ability can be assessed in the
foreign language. In some points, testing speaking is not as straightforward as
13

testing grammar or vocabulary. So Sárosdy (2006, p.146) states:
"Testing speaking ability is an important aspect of language testing, but it is
very difficult to test, as it is a complex skill, moreover speaking skills cannot be
separated from the listening skills in many tests of oral production. This
interdependence of the speaking and listening skills makes it difficult to analyze
precisely and reliably what is tested at any one time."
In the project oral testing, Asif (2011) says that there are three types of oral tests
which are: monologue speaking, dialogue speaking, and multilogue speaking.
According to the author, a monologue (monolog) is implemented when the speaker
speaks his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character or speak to
the audience, especially the former. The author also states that dialogue speaking is
the most common type of oral test which is used to test students' production dialog
material. In this type of speaking, hearing recitation of memorized dialogues was
the most often used. And the last types of oral test is multilogue speaking. In this

type, there should be picture description or discussion on any topic.
1.4.2. Speaking proficiency testing criteria
To test the oral proficiency of students, it could be concerned about criteria
levels of performance of students. In this study, the researcher would mention the
scale of oral testing criteria written by some researchers. According to Ur (1996:
113), students' oral speaking ability should be marked based on the two criteria:
fluency and accuracy as followings:
Accuracy

Fluency

Little or no language produced
1
Little or no communication
1
Poor vocabulary, mistakes in basic
grammar, may have very strong
foreign accent
2
Very hesitant and brief
utterances, sometimes difficult
to understand
2
Adequate but not rich vocabulary,
makes obvious grammar mistakes,
3
Gets ideas across, but hesitantly
and briefly
3
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slight foreign accent
Good range of vocabulary,
occasional grammar slips, slight
foreign accent
4
Effective communication in
short turns
4
Wide vocabulary appropriately used,
virtually no grammar errors,
native-like or slight foreign accent
5
Easy and effective
communication, uses long turns
5
Total score out of 10:
Table 1.1. Students' oral evaluation criteria
Furthermore, Kent (2001) points out some oral evaluation criteria which are:
Fluency of speech, Grammar use, Listening comprehension, Pronunciation and
Vocabulary appropriateness and complexity. He also states that for each point of
evaluation, students are graded on a Likert-type scale (1: being poor, 2: below
average, 3: average, 4: above average, 5: excellent.)
It is also written in IELTS speaking band descriptors (published version) that
students' English speaking proficiency should be evaluated on four criteria such as:
fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy and
pronunciation.
In short, there are many criteria to assess students' speaking proficiency.
However, to choose a suitable technique to assess speaking proficiency is part of the
problem. For the evaluation criteria, it should be evaluated by the examiner at

relevant points of students' conversation. The scale of speaking proficiency testing
criteria at Hanoi University of Business and Technology which candidates are tested
is based on IELTS speaking band descriptors (public versions) but it has been made
suitable for the situation of teaching and learning English speaking there.
Particularly, it also has four criteria which are fluency and coherence, vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation. To adapt the criteria and the speaking marking scheme
to the situation of teaching and learning English at HUBT, the teachers decided to
choose the maximum score for each criterion is 2.5 points. Therefore, the maximum
15

score for the test is 10.0 points in accordance with marking scale required by the
University. (Please see Appendix 4)
1.5. Motivation
1.5.1. Definitions
It is clearly seen that motivation plays an important part in the process of
learning a foreign language. There are a lot of theories of motivation that have been
searched and discussed.
The term "motivation" appears to be simple but difficult to define. Motivation,
according to Ellis, R. (1997:75), is "the efforts which learners put into learning an
L2 as a result of their own need or desire to learn". He also indicates that
"Motivation involves the attitudes and affective states that influence the degree of
effort that learners make to learn an L2". Then, motivation to learn a second
language in Ellis' point of view refers to the extent to which the individual works or
strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction
experienced in the activity.
Sharing the same viewpoint, Gardner (1985) defines motivation as a key factor
in determining the preparation of learners to communicate. Gardner's motivation
involves four aspects: a goal, an effort, a desire to attain the goal and a favorable
attitude towards the activity.
According to Crookes and Schmidt (1991), motivation is defined in terms of

learner's interest in and enthusiasm for the teaching method used in class, their
active participation or constancy with the learning task as indicated by levels of
concentration and enjoyment. Learning process can only make sense if students
enjoy activities and work hard. From the researcher's point of view, this definition is
exactly right for the motivation in this study.
It could be inferred from the definitions above that motivation is the effort,
enjoyment, enthusiasm and constancy that learners devote to the learning tasks as
well as the challenging activities conducted by the teachers to reach the setting -
goals in foreign language learning. Thus, when attempting to enhance learners'
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motivation in learning a foreign language, different aspects or stages of motivation
and factors affecting it should be concerned.
1.5.2. Types of Motivation in language learning
Many kinds of motivation in foreign language learning have been studied by
researchers, however, this research only mentions to the main ones. The most
well-known classification of motivation has been made in cognitive terms as
whether it is internal or external to the learner. In this respect, according to Dornyei
(2001a, p.27) intrinsic motivation is to do with "behaviour performed for its own
sake in order to experience pleasure and satisfaction". Concerning learning, it can
be said that the drive or stimulation to learn comes from within the students, hence,
the teacher or instructor does not have to " manipulate" the student in any way in
order to make him learn. It is an inner desire of the student to fulfill a positive
learning outcome. Intrinsic motivation itself is goal related, therefore, it is
independent of any kind of external value.
Extrinsic motivation, as Dornyei (2001a: 27) indicates, is about "performing a
behaviour as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic reward or to avoid
punishment". This motivation arises from the use of external rewards of bribes such
as food, praise, free time, money or points toward an activity. These incentives are
all external, in that they are separate from the individual and the task.

In other words, intrinsically motivated people accomplish a task for an internal
interest whereas extrinsically motivated people perform an activity because of an
interest external to the activity.
1.5.3. Factors affecting motivation in foreign language learning
The learners
As Lightbown and Spada point out in their book "How languages are learned"
(1993), leaners' motivation can be influenced by some certain factors which are
intelligence, aptitude, personality, preferences, and age of acquisition. Specifically,
intelligence is related to students' performance on certain kinds of tests. Aptitude
involves the ability to identify and memorize new sounds, to understand the