Thiết chỉnh một số hoạt động nói trong sách “Tiếng Anh 10” - cách để giảm bớt những khó khăn của học sinh trong việc học kỹ năng nói - một trường hợp ở trường T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES






NGUYỄN THỊ THU HẰNG
M.A. MINOR THESIS


Adapting Speaking Activities in "Tieng Anh 10" - A Way
to Reduce Students' Difficulties in Learning Oral Skills –
A Case of Nong Cong II High School, Thanh Hoa
(Thiết chỉnh một số hoạt động nói trong sách “Tiếng Anh 10” -
cách để giảm bớt những khó khăn của học sinh trong việc học kỹ năng
nói - một trường hợp ở trường THPT Nông Cống II, Thanh Hoá)



Field: English teaching methodology
Code: 601410
Cohort: MA 18 – Thanh Hoa

Hanoi, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES






NGUYỄN THỊ THU HẰNG
M.A. MINOR THESIS


Adapting Speaking Activities in "Tieng Anh 10" - A Way
to Reduce Students' Difficulties in Learning Oral Skills –
A Case of Nong Cong II High School, Thanh Hoa
(Thiết chỉnh một số hoạt động nói trong sách “Tiếng Anh 10” -
cách để giảm bớt những khó khăn của học sinh trong việc học kỹ năng
nói - một trường hợp ở trường THPT Nông Cống II, Thanh Hoá)

Field: English teaching methodology
Code: 601410
Cohort: MA 18 – Thanh Hoa
Supervisor : Dr. Tô Thị Thu Hương



Hanoi, 2011

iii

ABSTRACT
Teachers of English have faced many obstacles in developing students’ macro
language skill, and the desire of how to improve the effectiveness of English speaking lessons
is really a strong motivation for this study. The study aims at investigating the necessity of
adapting English speaking activities, finding how to adapt them and then suggesting some
appropriate speaking activities for ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to help the 10
th
form students at Nong Cong
II school have more changes to practice speaking and improve their speaking ability.
The subjects involved in the study are 125 10
th
form students and 7 teachers who are
currently teaching or have taught speaking to 10
th
form students. The data collected from
questionnaires, interviews, notes from classroom observation and then feedbacks from both
teachers and students reveal that it is vitally necessary to adapt English speaking activities to

facilitate English speaking process and enable students to speak naturally and frequently.
The investigation also helps the author identify some categories of English speaking
activities which attract much of students’ attention and heighten their participation. On this
basis, the study suggests some adapted speaking activities for teachers to utilize to increase the
effectiveness of English speaking lessons when applied to the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to
teach the 10
th
form students at Nong Cong 2 high school.












iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
List of figures, tables and charts vi
Abbreviations vi
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2

3. Scope of the study 2
4. Research questions 2
5. Research methodology 2
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW
I.1. Material Adaptation 3
I.1.1. Definition 3
I.1.2. Categories of materials adaptation 3
I.1.3. The purpose of materials adaptation 5
I.2. Oral communication 5
I.3. Factors causing difficulties in learning oral skills 6
I.3.1. Linguistic factor 6
I.3.2. Socio-cultural factors 6
I.4. English speaking skills 7
I.4.1.The nature of language skills 7
I.4.2. The importance of teaching English speaking. 8
I.5. English speaking and speaking activities 8
I.5.1 Characteristics of a successful English speaking activity 8
I.5.2. Categories of English speaking activities 9
I.6. Problems with English speaking and speaking activities 13
I.6.1. Problems with English speaking 13
v

I.6.2. Problems with English speaking activities 14
CHAPTER II – AN OVERVIEW OF THE MATERIALS AND CURRENT
SITUATIONS OF TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING AT NONG CONG 2 HIGH
SCHOOL, THANH HOA 15
II.1. Brief introduction of Nong Cong 2 high school 15
II.2. Students and their English background knowledge 15
II.3. General description of the curriculum and the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ 16

II.3.1. Overall Design 16
II.3.2. Approaches of the textbook 18
II.3.3. The curriculum and the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ 19
II.3.4. Sections for speaking skills in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ 19
CHAPTER III - THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20
III.1. Research questions 20
III.2. The subjects of the study 20
III.3. Data collection instruments 21
III.3.1. Questionnaires 21
III.3.2. Interview 22
III.3.3. Follow –up classroom observation 22
III.3.4. Feedback 22
CHAPTER IV – DATA ANALYSIS 23
IV.1. Questionnaires 22
IV.1.1. The effectiveness of communicative activities in
the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’. 22
IV.1.2.Students’ perceptions of their difficulties in English speaking lessons 23
IV.1.3.Necessity of changing or adding English speaking activities 25
IV.1.4. Teachers’ adaptation of English speaking activities and students’
preference……………………………… 25
IV.1.5. Changing or adding English speaking activities chosen by
teachers and their reasons. 26
vi

IV.2. Interview 27
IV.3. Follow-up class observation 28
IV.4. Feedback from students on the adaptation of English
speaking activities and their effectiveness. 28

CHAPTER V - SUGGESTED ADAPTATIONS OF ENGLISH SPEAKING

ACTIVITIES 31
V.1. Role play 31
V.2. Information gap 32
V.3. Co-operative learning 33
V.4. Discussion 35
V.5. Interviews 37

PART III: CONCLUSION 38
I. Summary of the study 38
II. Limitations and suggestions for further research 39
III. Suggestions for further research 39
REFERENCES 41
APPENDICE I










vii

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS
Figure 1. The four –macro language skills
Table 1: Description of teachers’ work experience
Table 2: Students’ background of English
Table 3: Students’ perceptions of their difficulties in English speaking skills

Table 4: The English speaking activities adapted by teachers and students’ preference.
Table 5: The English speaking activities for ‘Tieng Anh 10’ chosen by teachers.
Table 6: Adapted English speaking activities’ effectiveness
Chart 1. The effectiveness of communicative activities in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10.
Chart 2. The necessity of changing or adding English speaking activities.
Chart 3. Students’ attitudes towards the adapted English speaking activities and their
effectiveness.






ABBREVIATIONS
NC2.HS Nong Cong 2 high school
ELT English Language Teaching
CLT Communicative Language Teaching





1

Part I: INTRODUCTION

I. Rationale
With the development of society and the need to integrate into the international economy,
Vietnam Government has set strategic goals for its own, in which education is considered
as one of the leading goals. As a result, many changes and amendments to educational

policies have made. The new set of textbooks, for example, has been modified and applied
officially in high schools nationwide. And up to now, the new textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ has
been officially put in application for five years for 10th grade students. The pilot period
may be long enough for administrators and teachers to draw out some suitable adaptations,
especial speaking skill.
However, we can not deny a fact that many Vietnamese students after seven years learning
English at schools still feel confused when communicating with foreigners or they even
could not say a simple utterance like an offer. Obviously, the ability to communicate in a
foreign language clearly and effectively contributes to the success of the learner in school
and success later in every phase of life.
At Nong Cong 2 High School (NC2.HS), like many high schools in Vietnam, English has
been a compulsory subject in its curriculum for many years and the English speaking skill
is one of five official parts in a unit. However, due to the demand of the high school
graduation exam, which means little attention has been paid to the speaking skill.
Sometimes, they feel bored with the difficult and uninteresting topics in the textbook
‘Tieng Anh 10’. With 6 year – experience in NC2.HS, the author finds that the English
lessons with speaking activities adapted or designed by teachers always motivate students
and get them involved in speaking effectively.
Moreover, improving speaking skill for 10th form students proves essential because most
students have not learned how to speak English when they were at lower secondary school
and their speaking ability is extremely poor.
All the above mentioned reasons lead to the choice of the study ‘Adapting speaking
activities in ‘Tieng Anh 10’ - a way to reduce students' difficulties in learning oral
skills - a case of Nong Cong 2 High School, Thanh Hoa’.
II. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
2

- to investigate students’ difficulties in learning English oral skills and the current situation
of teaching the speaking activities to the 10th form students by teachers at Nong Cong 2

High School.
- to adapt some speaking activities based on “Tieng Anh 10” to reduce 10th grade student’s
difficulties in learning English oral skills at Nong Cong 2 high school.
III. Scope of the study
This thesis is carried with no hope that can cover all kinds of English speaking
activities because this is a board aspect investigated by many authors. The author’s
attempt is only to adapt some difficult speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 10” to reduce
student’s difficulties and make them more interested and active in English lessons,
thus, improving their speaking ability.
IV. Research questions
1. What are students’ difficulties in learning the current English speaking activities
in ‘Tieng Anh 10’?
2. Which speaking lessons (in 16 units of Tieng Anh 10) are difficult for the
students at NC2HS?
3. What speaking activities in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”should be adapted to
reduce students’ difficulties?
V. Research methodology
To achieve the aims mentioned above, the study employed survey questionnaire for
students, interview for teachers and classroom observations to collect information on the
students’ difficulties and seeks a way to reduce those difficulties by adapting some
unsuitable textbook pre-designed English speaking activities in “Tieng Anh 10”.

3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I – LITERATURE REVIEW
I.1. Material Adaptation
I.1.1. Definition
In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without
any material adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies,
out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety. Material adaptation is to
compensate for those deficiencies.
Masuhara (2004) points out that materials adaptation involve changing existing materials
in some forms so that they become suitable for specific purposes, learners, teachers or
situations’. Similarly, from Tomlinson’s point of view (1998: xi), materials adaptation
means to ‘make changes to materials in order to improve them or to make them more
suitable for a particular type of learners. Adaptation can include reducing, adding,
omitting, modifying and supplement’. Another author, Ellis, M (1986: 47) considered
adaptation the process of “retaining, rejecting, re-ordering and modification”.
According to Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix), adaptation is the action of employing “one or
more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying,
modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content”.
Materials adaptation means matching materials with the learner’s needs, the teacher’s
demands and administration’s purpose. To adapt materials we have to consider four major
factors:
I.1.2. Categories of materials adaptation
I.1.2.1. Material adaptation as addition
Material adaptation does not always require a great deal of extra work of teachers. As
stated by Madsen and Bowen (1978) and Mc Donough and Shaw (1993), the most natural
form of adaptation is extemporization, that is, a spontaneous response on the part of the

teacher to a problem or an opportunity. This might take such forms as the substitution in a
course book example of the familiar for the unfamiliar; the paraphrase of a course book
instruction that is unclear or reference to previously taught items when teaching new items.
Another form of material adaptation as addition is exploitation which is “the creative use
of what is already there (e.g. text, visual, activity) to serve a purpose which is additional to
that foreseen by the textbook writer”. For example, a text accompanied by a photograph
4

may intend to develop comprehension skills and linguistic resources but a teacher might
use it for some additional purposes. The picture might be used to predict the content or
brainstorm related vocabulary; the topic and language of the text might provide the basis
for discussion of students’ own experiences.
Extension, the third form of addition, refers to the provision by the teachers of additional
materials in order to improve understanding or learning such as further examples of a rule
or further items in an exercise.
However, we must make a distinction between extension and supplementation. Extension
means “more of the same”. For example, if the course book contains only one short
exercise to practice a point which your students find particularly difficult and you devise
more items of the same type as the original exercise, this is extension. If you give them
another exercise from another exercise yourself, this is supplementation.
I.1.2.2. Adaptation as change /Modification
Modification means changes in different aspects of materials, such as linguistic level,
exercises, assessment system and so on. Modification of materials is applicable/
appropriate in the following situations: Texts are of inappropriate length. Materials are
inappropriate to the aim and to the learners’ age/ experience or materials are unclear,
confusing or misleading.
I.1.2.3. Adaptation as reduce/ Simplification
This procedure is employed to make materials less complicated or easier to understand. If
the language teaching material is found to be difficult or mechanical for the target learner,
it (material) can be made suitable for the learner through the process of simplification.

I.1.2.4. Adaptation as deletion/omission
Deletion is an adaptation procedure which involves removal of some of the linguistic items
and activities which are found to be extra and unnecessary. So, deletion is a process in
which materials are taken out rather than added. Materials should be reduced through
omission when the following situations are faced such as learners are clear about a
language point and are competent in a skill. There are too many tasks on a particular
area/point which concerned is not a priority. The item/task is not well designed or not well-
suited to its aim(s). And the topic is not appropriate for learners.
More or less, most of the scholars’ viewpoints I base my thesis on agree on some kinds of
change and addition when mentioning “material adaptation”.

5

I.1.3. The purpose of material adaptation.
In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow without
any adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-
datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety. Thus, I favor Madsen and Bowen’s
(1978) and Tice’s (1991) view that is the purpose of material adaptation is to compensate
for those deficiencies.
Another purpose of material adaptation, as explained by McDonough and Shaw (1993: 85)
is “to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the
internal characteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstances.”
A very common technique of “maximizing the appropriacy of teaching materials” is
modifying them in such a way that they seem more relevant to learners’ interests and needs
and this is important to all teachers of English because it can activate learners and
stimulate their motivation, and increased motivation, in turn, is likely to create a more
conductive classroom atmosphere.
I.2. Oral communication
Communication between human is a complex and ever changing process. When
communication takes place, speakers/ writers, one of the forms of communication is oral

communication which is realized by using oral skills.
As mentioned above, oral communication skills are speaking and listening. In real life,
listening is used twice as often as speaking. However, speaking is used twice as much as
reading and writing (River, 1981). Inside ELT classrooms, speaking and listening are most
often used skills (Brown, 1994).
In oral communication process, the roles of speakers and listeners are interchanged;
information gaps between them are created then closed with the effort from both sides. In
organizing classroom oral practice, teachers should create as much information gaps as
possible and teachers’ vital duty is to encourage communication which yields information
gaps. Teachers should also bear in mind the differences between real-life oral
communication and classroom oral communication. As for Pattison (1992) clssroom oral
practices have five characteristics: (1) the content or topic is predictable and decided by
teachers, books, tapes, etc; (2) Leaners’ aims in speaking is: to practice speaking, to follow
teachers’ instructions and to get good marks; (3) Learners’ extrinsic motivation is satisfied;
(4) participants are often a large group; (5) language from teachers or tapes are closed
adapted to learners’ level.
6

Nunan (1989) provides a list of characteristics of successful oral communication. As for
him, successful oral communication should involve:
(1) Comprehensible pronunciation of the target language
(2) Good use of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns
(3) Fluency
(4) Good transational and interpersonal skills
(5) Skills in taking short and long speaking in turns
(6) Skills in the management of interactions
(7) Skills in negotiating meaning
(8) Conversational listening skills
(9) Skills in knowing about the negotiating purposes for the conversations
(10) Using appropriate conversational formulae and filters

I.3. Factors causing difficulties in learning oral skills
I.3.1. Linguistic factor
The speaking skill is so central to our thinking about language learning that when we refer
to speaking a language we often mean knowing a language. MacIntyre and Garder (1991)
point out that the skill which procedures most anxiety is speaking. This anxiety comes in
part from a lack of confidence in our general linguistic knowlegde. According to
Williamson (2011), this kind of knowledge or “Knowledge of the rules that govern how we
encode and decode linguistic utterances can be thought of as being organized into three
components: the semantic-syntactic knowledge base, the phonological knowledge base,
and the phonetic knowledge base”.
I.3.2. Socio-cultural factors
I.3.2.1. Social environment for L2/ FL acquisition
Environment, where the target language is not used as L1 in the community, provides l2/
FL learners only limited and sometimes faulty input. For such learners, the only input is
teachers’ or classmates’ talk – both do not speak L2 well. Learners in such environment are
exposed to the language only in the classroom where they spend less time in contact with
the language. The limited exposure to the target language and lack of opportunities to
practice speaking in such environments result into embarrassment or stress for them when
they are required to speak both in and out of the class.
I.3.2.2. Errors in social setting
7

Although it is clear that language learners can not be without errors, errors can be a source
of anxiety in some individuals because they draw attention to the difficulty of making
positive social impressions when speaking a new language (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989:
cited in Horwitz & Gregersen, 2002: 562). Errors in social settings are mostly overlooked
if they do not interfere with meaning because people consider it impolite to interrupt and
correct somebody who is trying to have a conversation with them. Interlocutors only react
to an error if they cannot understand the speech and try to adjust their speech with the
speaker in their effort to negotiate for meaning. It is only in the classroom environment that

feedback on errors is provided frequently; this leads many learners to frustration and
embarrassment by making them conscious of their deficiencies.
I.4. English speaking skills
I.4.1. The nature of language skills
Based on the purpose of analysis and instruction, language is divided into different skill
areas. On the teaching point of view, language skills consist mainly of four macro-skills:
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Those four skills have supportive relationship.
Among the four skills, listening and reading are perceptive skills while speaking and
writing are productive skills (Byrne, 1991:8). They are also divided according to the
manners by which they are formed. The skills which are related to articulate organs are
called oral skills which include listening and speaking. The ones in connection with
manual script are named literacy skills which consist of reading and writing. All these four
are represented in Figure 1.

Receptive skills
Oral Skills

Productive skills
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Literacy skills
Figure1. The four –macro skills
Of the four skills, speaking plays an essential role. Byrne (1991:9) proves that this oral skill
in communication is complementary. If one man is good at speaking skill, other skills will be
much supported.
To sum up, all the above skills are important for learners. Whenever they acquire those skills
they can have confidence in speaking and using a foreign language. But it should be
emphasized that speaking skill can never be separated with other skills (listening, reading

and writing). All of them are integrated and supportive to each other.
8

I.4.2. The importance of teaching English speaking.
It is observed that many Vietnamese teachers of English are good at teaching vocabulary
and grammar in order to translate texts and to prepare students for examinations. However,
organized lessons to practice speaking English can be a big challenge for both teachers and
teachers. Many teachers worldwide have to teach mainly grammar and vocabulary because
the areas are tested in examinations. This means that speaking is a neglected language skill
in many classrooms. Students may have a good knowledge of grammar and a wide range
of vocabulary, they can use this knowledge to pass the examinations, but they find it
difficult to speak English in the real-life situations.
A classroom is not only a place where we learn about the rules of language. It is also a
place where students can practice using the language in a supportive environment. As a
result, we, teachers have to try to speed up this process. This means that teachers have to
introduce new language and help students practice it often.
Teachers need to use lots of interesting ways to motivate students to speak and improve
their speaking ability. Teachers not only give them new words (vocabulary) and tell them
how to put words together correctly (grammar) but also give them opportunities to use and
practice the language they have learnt, also, providing extra speaking skills.
I.5. Speaking activities
I.5.1. Characteristics of a successful English speaking activity
According to Ur (1969: 120), a successful speaking activity consists of the following
characteristics:
- A lot of learners talk: learners speak as much as possible during the period of time
allowed. Time taken up with teacher talk or pauses is minimized.
- Even participation every learner takes part in the speaking activity. The
participants’ contributions are fairly distributed.
- High motivation: The topic makes them interested and eager to speak or learners
want to fulfill the task to get the goal.

- An acceptable language lever: Learners use relevant and comprehensible
expressions. Language accuracy is of an acceptable level.
I.5.2. Categories of English speaking activities
Many researchers discuss classroom activities and a lot of activities are adapted or
designed based on the theory and characteristics of CLT.
9

Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between “functional communication activities” and “social
interaction activities “. In his views, the former includes such tasks as learners noting
similarities or differences in sets of picture, discovering missing features in a map or
picture, one learner communicating behind a screen to another learner and giving
instructions on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map, following
directions, and solving problems from shared cues. The latter includes conversation and
discussion sessions, dialogues and role- plays, simulation, improvisations and debates.
Richards and Rodgers (1986: 165) discuss that the range of exercise types and activities
with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises and activities
enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners
in communication and require the use of such communicative processes as information
sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction. In their views, classroom activities should
be designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve
negotiation of information and information sharing.
Activities may be classified as activities for accuracy that aim at learners’ competence in
producing right words, phrases or sentences and activities for fluency that aim at learners’
capacity to sustain the flow of speech with ease and comfort.
In short, speaking activities are various and can be found in a great number of resources.
However, in this minor thesis, the author would introduce some most applicable types
which have proven the most effective.
 Conversation
Conversation serves many functions. People use conversations to establish relationships
through personal expression, to find out information, and to compare views with other.

Conversation provides a means for sharing experiences and solving problems.
Teachers can capitalize on the critical role of conversation in students’ lives and use it to
enhance their language learning. Through, experiences with the language processes,
students can discover a steadily expanding series of topics and purposes for conversation.
Students should have opportunities to talk about a variety of topics such as projects, books,
characters, television programs and videos. In conversation, it is important for students to
have useful vocabulary. Clarity and precision are the keys to effective word choice in
conversation. Teachers should not expect perfection from students in the use of unfamiliar
or difficult words, but rather should develop a supportive environment and group rapport
the encourage students to experiment with unfamiliar words.
10

 Discussion
Discussion differs from conversation in that it generally has an identifiable purpose, such
as coming to clearer understanding of characters’ roles in a drama or exploring the
possibilities for publishing student writing. Discussion is similar to conversation with
regard to listening carefully, considering what others say, being courteous, and speaking so
that all can hear. Many of students’ conversational abilities will transfer to discussion
situations.
Discussion assists students in the development of reasoning, critical thinking, and
problems-solving skills. It gives them practice in expressing ideas orally in an organized
manner and enables them to arrive at conclusions, clarity or modify ideas, resolve
differences, and find alternative solutions. In group discussions, students many encounter
viewpoints different from their own. They come to see that there are many problems for
which no one finds appropriate solution. As well, discussion can serve as a means of
building consensus among group members.
Groupings of three to five are good for effective discussion. Everyone is able to contribute
to the discussion as a listener and as a speaker. In addition, a small group draws out quieter
students who many not contribute to larder group discussions.
 Storytelling

Storytelling is an oral sharing of a personal or traditional story, told using the essence of
the tradition from which it originates. As a shared experience between teller and listener, it
offered natural language experiences for students.
Storytelling allows students to internalize important aspects of story beginnings and
endings, settings, characters, and plot lines. It provides practice in expressing ideas in
thought units, using colorful and descriptive language, developing ideas in sequence, and
choosing effective action words.
The speech abilities needed for storytelling are essentially the same as ones required for all
speaking activities. Storytelling encourages students to experiment with voice, tone, eye-
contact, gestures, and facial expressions. It also lets them practice techniques for holding
audience attention.
 Oral reports
In preparing reports, students develop the ability to select material appropriate to
classroom topics and to the audience, and the ability to collect and organize material
(requiring skills in reading critically, taking notes, summarizing, and outlining). Often a
11

report can be made more meaningful to the audience through the use of visuals such as
charts, maps, diagrams, and overhead transparencies.
Oral reports should emerge from other English language arts processes. If some students
are not comfortable with reporting, they can develop more confidence by taking part in
other oral activities before they are ready to give a report.
 Telephoning
The telephoning is an important tool for personal, school, and business use because of the
rapid communication it permits. Therefore, there is need to reinforce personal speaking and
listening abilities regarding telephone use.
The students should be provided with functional and helpful vocabulary and they must
have authentic reasons for telephoning when they are practicing their skills in the English
language arts classroom.
 Announcements

Making announcements can serve as useful oral speaking practice at any grade level. As
with other types of speech activities, criteria for making announcements should be
developed by the class. These criteria should address the recommended format and manner
of presentation and serve as guidelines for the students.
After the announcements are made, peers or the teacher might write the student announcer
an informal note, commenting on the strengths of the presentation and including one
suggestion for improvement.
 Role play
Role play provides the opportunity for students to develop and revise their understanding
and perspectives by exploring thoughts and feelings of characters in given situations. The
teacher may take a role, becoming an active participant in promoting independent thinking
and co-operative learning.
Role play helps students to develop empathy as they examine others’ ideas, feelings, and
points of view as well as oral expression and interpretation skills as they use language to
describe perceptions, emotions, and reactions In addition, it also helps students to improve
decision-making, problem-solving skills as they gain experience independence thinking
and co-operative learning.
 Interviews
An interview is a good way to gain information and provide the participants with practice
in proving speaking and listening skills. Results of interviews can be prepared for
12

publication in reports or in the school newspaper, thus supporting the writing component of
the language arts program.
Students might interview people from the community who have firsthand knowledge
regarding topics being studied at school or they might interview visitors, fellow students or
teachers. It is important that the interview has a definite purpose.
 Informal Debate
Students who participate in debates have an opportunity to explore, listen, and enjoy
learning. Debates gave students additional opportunities to hear their classmates’ views

and to express opinions regarding topics that matter to them. They also help students make
important decisions and become critical listeners. The informal debate helps students to
work together to understand common problems.
Informal debate reflects the learning process. Debating allows students to explore ideas
and arguments in a non-threatening atmosphere, because presentational guidelines are
provided. Debating is an effective method of acquiring knowledge, as arguments need to
be supported by relevant, accurate, and complete information. Students who debate
informally learn to recognize the elements of a good argument and to develop further their
abilities to speak confidently.
 Co-operative learning
Co-operative learning involves students in group collaboration in order to achieve a goal or
to complete a project. Although students do not necessarily work together at one table
throughout the project, participation by each group member is necessary to accomplish the
task. Success and assessment are based on the performance of the group, as well as on
individual contributions and performance within the group.
Co-operative learning experiences are particularly effective at the Middle Level, where
students have an innate desire to be accepted. Competitive, individual efforts are
appropriate at times, however, co-operative learning experiences have the advantage of
helping students work together and support each other.
I.6. Problems with English speaking and speaking activities
I.6.1. Problems with English speaking
Everything has bad and good sides. Speaking also has its own problems.
According to Brown (1994: 256), the characteristics of spoken language can make oral
performance easy as well as in some cases difficult. There are following problems with
speaking:
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 Clustering
Fluent speech is phrase not word by word. Learners can organize out put both cognitively
and physically through such clustering.

 Redundancy
The speaker has an opportunity to make clearer through the redundancy of language.
Learner can capitalize on this feature of spoken language.
 Reduced forms
Contraction, elisions, reduced vowel, etc all forms, special problems in teaching spoken
English. Students don’t learn colloquial contraction can sometimes develop a stilted,
bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatizes them.
 Colloquial language
Colloquialism appears both in monogues and dialogues. If learners are only exposed to
standard English and/ or ‘textbook’ language, they sometimes have difficulty in
understanding and producing words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language.
 Stress, rhythm and intonation
This is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation because the stress-timed
rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important massages. But the
fact that the learners of English often find it difficult to pronounce English words or stress
the right syllables, to follow the tress-timed rhythm and intonation patterns of spoken
English.
 Affective factors
In the process of learning speaking, students often encounter the risk of saying out things
that may be wrong, stupid and incomprehensible. At those times, they tend to be anxious
because they do not want to be judged by other learners.
 Interaction
The greatest difficulty that the students face in learning to speak originates from the
interactive nature of most communication. Engaged in the process of negotiation of
meaning with any discourse constraints, learners have to do the complex task of choosing
what to say, how to say, when to say Learners are also affected by their interlocutors’
performance.
I.6.2. Problems with English speaking activities
Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech is
an important component of a language course where CLT is applied. However, it is more

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difficult to design and administer such activities than to do so for listening, reading or
writing. Teachers often come across the problems that Ur (1996:121) lists out:
 Inhibition:
Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real time
exposure to an audience. Learners are often inhibition about trying to say things in a
foreign language. In the classroom: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or
losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
 Nothing to say:
Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain that they can not think of
anything to say, or that they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty
feeling.
 Lows or uneven participation:
Only one participate can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard; and in a large group this
means that each one will have only very little talking time. This problem is compounded
by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.
 Mother-tongue use:
In classes all, or a number of the learners share the same mother tongue for many reasons:
Firstly, they may tend to use it because it is easier. Secondly, they feel unnatural to speak
to one another in a foreign language and lastly because they feel less ‘exposed’ if they are
speaking their mother tongue. If they are talking in a small group, it can be quite difficult
to get some class-particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones to keep to the target
language.
Through two sections above, we can know most of the difficulties that students often
encounter in learning English speaking skill. Basing on these views, an action research is
to carried out on adapting some English speaking activities for the ‘Tieng Anh 10’ to
reduce these difficulties.

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CHAPTER II – AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRICULUM AND THE TEXTBOOK
TIENG ANH 10 AND THE CURRENT SITUATIONS OF TEACHING ENGLISH
SPEAKING AT NONG CONG 2 HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

II.1. Brief introduction of Nong Cong 2 high school
Nong Cong 2 high school is located in Nong Cong district which is in the rural area of
Thanh hoa. It has three grades: 10, 11, and 12, in each of which the number of students is
nearly the same.
As in every high school, English is one of the compulsory subjects in Nong Cong II high
school which is taught in every three forty-five periods per week. As for classroom
arrangement, the class size is averagely 42 -45, therefore, it is difficult to carry out a
communicative task in such a mixed –ability large class. The school also has a room with
an overhead projector and a computer with is occasionally used by teachers of all subjects
in teaching festivals that are held twice an academic year.
Concerning the teaching staff, there are nearly seventy teachers of all subjects, nine of
whom are teachers of English whose ages range from 30 to 52. Four of them graduated
from the English Department of Hong Duc University, Thanh hoa. One of them graduated
from French Department and she got English as the 2
nd
Degree. The rest were from Vinh
University, Nghe An. They all have at least 5 years of teaching experience. The teachers
mostly speak their mother tongue a habit, even in speaking classes. This results in the fact
that they face difficulties in pronunciation and expressing themselves in the target

language.
II.2. Students and their English background knowledge
Students of Nong Cong 2 high school come from all parts of Nong Cong district. It is a
poor district because agriculture plays the main role in its economy. This heavily affects
people’s thinking here. According to them, being able to speak their mother tongue (that is
Vietnamese) correctly is enough, so it is not necessary for them and their children to learn
to speak English. Although learning English at lower secondary schools and high schools
has been considered an official subject among Maths, Literature, Chemistry, Physics, and
others, it is not appreciated at lower secondary schools at Nong Cong because English is
not included in any entrance or final exams. Therefore, teachers and students’ attitudes
towards teaching and learning English are negative. They consider English a minor subject
at school at schools. As a result, students do not pay attention to learning English. They
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learn it very badly. Thus, it is difficult for teachers at NCII.HS to teach them English
because the new textbook Tieng Anh 10 at high schools now written based on the English
textbooks at lower secondary schools. Teachers have no time to reteach all the English
knowledge students have learned at lower secondary schools, especially speaking skill;
they have to follow the syllabus. Day by day, both teachers and students feel tired and
bored when having to teach and learning English. So it is essential to find out the way to
reduce these difficulties and improve students’ speaking English ability.
II.3. General description of the curriculum of textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’
II.3.1. Overall Design
The new textbook Tieng Anh 10 is designed to foster a more communicative approach,
learner-centered learning, an emphasis on oral skills, and language for real-life
communication. This intention is explicitly presented in the following objectives of the
new textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’:
- To formulate and develop a fundamental and systematic knowledge of English hence
learners can use English as a means of communication at the basic level.
- To enable the students to develop their communicative skills in the target language

including the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
- To have an appropriate, systematic and basic knowledge of English for upper secondary
school learners.
- To create a communicative environment or set for students to acquire English by using it
through activities in class.
- To broaden learners’ general understanding of and positive attitudes toward the language,
countries, people and cultures of some English countries, thus enrich their knowledge and
pride of their own culture and language.
The textbook is theme-based designed in which language and the skills are structured
round a certain topic or theme. The theme provides a context in which language is used so
as to help students be able to use the appropriate language structures in different
communicative situations.
The topic and vocabulary are recycled in guided group discussion (i.e. speaking practice)
before students listen to a lecture or tape (i.e. listening comprehension). A writing task
taking the form of narrative, letters or reports concludes the theme-based activities. Thus,
all four major language skills together with note-taking, analytical and interpretive skills,
etc can be practiced.
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II.3.2. Approaches of the textbook
The need to use English in actual communicative context is beginning to emerge as
educators realize that the traditional learning and teaching styles do not help learners’
communicate with foreigners, both native and non-native speakers of English. The shift
toward a new way of learning with more opportunities to use the target language, not only
in classroom but also in reality has brought a livelier atmosphere to learning and teaching
English in high secondary schools.
The new textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ based on two popular approaches in contemporary
English teaching. Grammatical phenomenon is considered important to the development of
communicative skills, learner-centered approach and communicative approach. The two
oriented methods of teaching English is considered by task-based teaching. The new

method considered learners as the center of other teaching-learning process; promote
students’ ability, positive ness, activeness and creative. It is directed toward
communicative competence through skills. Communicative competence is a means of
achieving communicative goal. The teacher in the new teaching context, instead being
dominating authority in the classroom, plays a role as an assistant, advisor, organizer,
helper and enlightener in class to facilitate the communicative process among all the
learners so that students could be confident and relaxed. Whereas, students get
familiarization with pair work and group work, willing to fulfill their tasks (linguistic and
communications) positively, actively under the supervision and assistant from their
teachers.
In conclusion, the text book ‘Tieng Anh 10’ is designed to exploit thoroughly and
effectively the modern teaching methods so as to innovate teachers’ teaching methods as
well as formulate learners’ learning ones. It also provides a good source of motivation for
students to learn the target language.
II.3.3. The curriculum and the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’
‘Tieng Anh 10’ is continuously designed based on English 6, English 7, English 8, and
English 9 at the level of high secondary school. In this textbook, the learning objectives are
clear and concise and a detailed overview of the topics, functions, structrures/ grammar,
and skills within each unit can be found in the introductory table of contents.
The new English textbook – Tieng Anh 10 is theme-based designed with 16 units,
equivalent to 16 topics divided into 6 themes: Personal information, Education,
Community, Health, The world around us. Within the frame work of each unit, the
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language input is respectively introduced within 5 sections respectively: reading, speaking,
listening, writing, and language focus.Each section is designed to be taught in one period.
These sections are theme-based closely related to each other as follow to ensure a smooth
transition from one to another. (See Appendix 4)
II.3.4. Sections for speaking skills in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’
The section for speaking is placed the second, after reading lesson. The aims of speaking

lesson are to develop learners’ speaking skills on given topic. In each speaking lesson,
there are 3 or 4 tasks, Task 1 and task 2 focus learners’ language input and develop
language competencies as well as language specific functions such as expressing
preferences, talking abour the uses of computer, giving instructions, expressing opinions,
asking for and giving information, expressing agreements and disagreements, and making
comparison and contrast etc. Task 3 – 4 get students synthesize specific competencies
and develop a text for 1-2 minute speaking practice with or without the guidance of the
teachers.
Although designed to renovate the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam, the
textbook Tieng Anh 10 is not without faults. Teachers and students report that sometimes,
it is very difficult for them to just follow the pre-designed speaking activities in the
textbook. This points to the need to investigate into this problem. The current study is such
an attempt.
The next chapter presents the methodology used in this study.