Using short activities and game in the post speaking stage to increase grade 11 A4 students interets at Chan Mong hight school, Phu Tho Province

HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

NGUYEN THI THANH HUONG
USING SHORT ACTIVITIES AND GAMES IN THE
POST- SPEAKING STAGE TO INCREASE GRADE 11A4
STUDENTS’ INTERETS
AT CHAN MONG HIGH CHOOL, PHU THO PROVINCE
THE GRADUATION PAPER
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Phu Tho, 2015
i
HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HƯỜNG
USING SHORT ACTIVITIES AND GAMES IN THE
POST- SPEAKING STAGE TO INCREASE GRADE 11A4
STUDENTS’ INTERETS
AT CHAN MONG HIGH CHOOL, PHU THO PROVINCE
(Sử dụng các hoạt động và trò chơi ngắn ở phần cuối bài
dạy kỹ năng nói nhằm tăng hứng thú học tập cho sinh lớp
11A4 trường THPT Chân Mộng, tỉnh Phú Thọ)
THE GRADUATION PAPER
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
SUPERVISOR: HOANG THI VAN YEN, MA
Phú Thọ, 2015
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me great help
during the completion of my study.

Firstly, I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to my
supervisor: Mrs. Hoang Thi Van Yen whose precious advice and detailed critical
comment have been of great assistance to me to do this study. I am great indebted
for her enthusiasm and encouragement. Without her help, this study would not
have possibly been completed.
Secondly, I would like to thank all the lectures, teachers, and staff at Hung
Vuong University, especially those in Department of Foreign Languages who have
created favorable conditions for me to study and write the graduation paper.
Finally, I would like to express my great appreciation to my family, my dear
friends for their support and encouragement throughout this study.
Viet Tri, April 2014
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Page
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Previous research 2
3. Research purpose 3
4. Research question 3
5. Research methods 3
6. Significance of the study 4
7. Scope of the study 4
8. Structure of the study 4
PART B: MAJOR CONTENT 5
Chapter 1: Literature review 5
1.1. The nature of spoken language 5
1.1.1. The speaker 5
1.1.2. The listener 5
1.1.3. The utterances 5

1.2. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the importance of
speaking skill
5
1.3. Stages of teaching speaking 6
1.3.1. Pre- speaking stage 6
1.3.2. While- speaking stage 6
1.3.3. Post- speaking stage 7
1.4. Motivation 7
1.4.1. Definition 7
1.4.2. Motivation in classroom setting 7
1.5. Speaking activities 8
1.5.1. Factors of a successful speaking activity 8
1.5.2. Problem with speaking activities 9
1.5.3. Solutions to the problems with speaking activities 10
1.6. Short activities and games 11
1.6.1. The role of short activities and games in language teaching and
learning process
11
1.6.2. Principles of using short activities and games in speaking class 2
1.6.3. Common types of short activities and games used for the post-
speaking stage
12
Chapter 2: Methodology 16
2.1. Overview of the survey 16
2.1.1. Aims of the survey 16
2.1.2. Participants and setting 16
2.2. Description of the questionnaire surveys 17
2.2.1. Teacher’s survey 18
2.2.2. Students’ survey 18
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2.3. Description of the experimental teaching speaking lessons 19
2.4. Data collection and analysis 21
2.4.1. The results and analysis from teachers’ questionnaire survey 21
2.4.2. The results and analysis from students’ questionnaire survey
number 1
25
2.4.3. The results and analysis from students’ questionnaire survey
number 2
29
Chapter 3- Recommendations and suggestions for using short activities
and games in the post- speaking stage
35
3.1. Some recommendations for using short activities and games in the
post- speaking stage
35
3.1.1. The selection of activities and games 35
3.1.2. Time 35
3.1.3. Preparation 35
3.1.4. Physical arrangement 36
3.1.5. Management 36
3.1.6. Short activities and rules of games’ instructions 37
3.1.7. Correction 37
3.2. Some suggested short activities and games to increase students’
interests in the post- speaking stage
37
PART C: CONCLUSION 41
1. Main findings 41
2. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 42
3. Conclusion 42
REFFERENCES 43

APPENDIXES
v
LIST OF TABLES
List of tables Page
Table 2.1: The teachers’ attitude toward speaking skill 21
Table 2.2: The teachers’ attitude toward the post- speaking stage 21
Table 2.3: Teachers’ spending time on the post- speaking stage 23
Table 2.4: Difficulties of teaching the post- speaking stage 23
Table 2.5: The frequency of using short activities or games in the post-
speaking stage
23
Table 2.6: Kinds of short activities or games used in the post- speaking
stage
24
Table 2.7: The students’ attitude toward speaking skill 25
Table 2.8: Students’ attitude toward speaking lesson 26
Table 2.9: The students’ views toward the post- speaking stage 26
Table 2.10: The reasons which make students less interested in class 27
Table 2.11: The frequency of taking part in the short activities or games in
the post- speaking stage
28
Table 2.12: The Level of the Students’ familiarity with each short activity or
game
28
Table 2.13: Students’ opinions about the goals of using short activities and
games in the post- speaking stage
29
Table 2.14: Students’ interest in the experimental teaching lessons 30
Table 2.15: Students’ attitude toward the short activities and games 30
Table 2.16: The benefits of using short activities and games in the post–

speaking stage
31
Table 2.17: Students’ views about the effectiveness of the short activities
and games used in the post- speaking stage
32
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Table 2.18: The degree of students’ interest with each short activity or game 33
Table 2.19: Students’ opinions about whether teacher should use short
activities and games in the post- speaking or not.
33
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
ESL English as a Second Language
vii
ABSTRACT
Nowdays, English is considered as international language, which is spoken
by millions of people all over the world. The needs to use English to communicate
verbally are essential and increase more and more. Speaking skill plays an
important role in communication. However, teaching speaking skill in High school
in general and in grade 11A4 at Chan Mong High school in particular seem to have
some obstacles.
This graduation paper studies the real situation of using some short activities
and games to increase grade 11A4 students’ interest at Chan Mong High school.
The target of this study is to investigate the current situation of the post- peaking
stage at Chan Mong High school and to study the effects of using short activities
and games and then make some suggestions and implications to intergrade short
activities and games into the post- speaking stage of speaking lesson. This study is
conducted on 6 English teachers and 36 students in grade 11A4 at Chan Mong High
school, all needed data was collected through a series of questionnaire surveys
before and after the experimental teaching speaking lessons. It is hoped that this

thesis will be useful for teachers and students at Chan Mong High school in learning
and teaching the post- speaking stage.
1
PART1 A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
English nowadays has become a required subject of all study levels in
Vietnam. Among four language skills, speaking is regarded as the most important
one for face-to-face communication. However, there is a fact that both the teachers
and the students have not paid enough attention to speaking skill. In a speaking
lesson, teachers often focus more on the pre- and the while- speaking stages than
the post- speaking stage. As a result, the students’ interests are reduced at the end of
the lesson.
Additionally, motivation is perhaps the key that leads to consecutive success
in the learning process, especially in second language achievement. So, maintaining
the students’ interest during the lesson is very important. If the students do not have
motivation, they cannot get the best result from learning. Usually, the students have
more interest at the beginning of the lesson. After doing many exercises and taking
part in speaking activities in the pre- speaking and while- speaking stage, the
students often feel tired, even bored in the post- speaking stage. Therefore,
motivation in the post- speaking stage is very important for speaking lessons.
Short activities and games are supposed to increase the students’ interest in
the post-speaking stage. But in fact, many teachers still do not highly appreciate the
importance of short activities and games in the post- speaking. In addition, they lack
effective ways to motivate the language learners. However, this study does not aim
at measuring students’ motivation in learning speaking but helps increase their
interests in speaking lessons through short activities and games in the post-
speaking stage.
These above reasons have motivated the author to conduct this study with the
hope that this study will provide teachers of English in general and teachers at Chan
Mong High School in particular a better understanding of using short activities and

games in the post-speaking stage. In addition, the study is carried out with the hope
to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking at Chan
Mong High School.
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2. Previous studies
2.1 In the world
Nunan (1991) conducts the research about the issues in studying speaking
skill of today's students and suggests the existing methods to enhance speaking
skills of elementary level students. It also discovers the reasons of unwillingness to
communicate and the ways to overcome the language barrier.
The study by Wright and Buck (1990) shows that learning process does not
only happen between students and teachers but also between students and students.
In the classroom, the teacher must create the situation that can encourage
communication. Games are some of the techniques that can be applied in teaching
speaking because they are possible activities that give students feeling of freedom to
express themselves. Games are also useful to encourage students to interact with
each other orally.
Kayi (2006) studies activities to enhance speaking in a second language in
University of Nevada. The author recommends a lot of activities that can be used to
improve students’ interest in speaking lessons. He suggested that using of different
activities in teaching and learning foreign language is the most effective way to
motivate students to speak.
2.2. In Viet Nam
Luu (2010) investigates factors affecting motivation in speaking English of
the grade 10 students. She considers some aspects such as types of motivation
possessed by grade 10 students at high school, factors affecting students’ motivation
in speaking English, activities and techniques applied by teachers and students,
some suggested solutions for teachers to encourage students speaking and to
overcome the difficulties they face with in teaching speaking.
Pham (2009) investigate the ways to organize activities and create English

environment in classroom for the learners. The study also finds out how we can
achieve the goal of effectiveness when applying language games in teaching and
learning English. In addition, the writer also suggests some activities and games that
can be used in teaching speaking English speaking skill effectively.
Nguyen (2011) suggests that teachers should be more active in using
classroom activities to help students recover lexical language items. Some of the
3
most common speaking activities are games. According to the writer, some games
are highly motivating, competitive, and fun. They also bring a relaxed atmosphere
and create more opportunities for students to practise. With games, students will
enjoy themselves, be stimulated and get involved in speaking. As the result, they
can learn new lexical language items faster and remember better.
3. Research purpose
For the reasons mentioned above, the thesis has been done with the aims to:
•Investigate the real situation of teaching speaking skill at Chan Mong High
school.
•Study the effects of using short activities and games in the post- speaking
stage at Chan Mong High school.
•Make some suggestions and implications to integrate short activities and
games into post-speaking stage of speaking lesson.
4. Research questions
The study aims to answer the following questions:
• What are the teachers and students’ attitudes towards the post- speaking
stage and speaking skill in Chan Mong High school?
• How do short activities and games in the post- speaking stage work in
English speaking classes at Chan Mong High school?
5. Methodology
5.1. Research Methods
To carry out the study, the following methods have been used:
Investigating methods: The aim of this method is to study the real situation

of teaching speaking skill and the post- speaking at Chan Mong High school.
Experimental methods: The aim of this method is to measure the
effectiveness of the short activities and games in the post- speaking stage.
Analytic and synthetic methods: This method is used to analyze and
synthesize the data collected from the questionnaire surveys.
Comparative and contrastive methods: The aim of this method is to compare
and contrast the data collected from the questionnaire surveys.
5.2. Research Procedure
Firstly, the author reviews the theories related to the study in order to build
4
up a theoretical background for the analysis.
Secondly, the author studies the real situation of teaching and learning the
post- speaking stage at Chan Mong high school by using questionnaires survey for
both the teachers and students there.
Thirdly, the author uses short activities and games to teach speaking lessons
at Chan Mong High School to evaluate the effectiveness of short activities and
games.
Finally, the author conducts the second survey to investigate the effects of
short activities and games in the post-speaking stage of speaking lesson.
6. The significance of the study
By investigating the attitudes of the teachers and the students in Chan Mong
High school towards speaking skill in general and in the post- speaking stage in
particular, the author gains an insight into the real situation of teaching speaking.
Then, the author makes an effort to integrate short activities and games into
speaking lessons at Chan Mong High School with the hope to increase students’
interests in speaking lesson. The study, therefore, is expected to make a little
contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skill at Chan Mong
High school.
7. The Scope of the study
The study focuses on using of short activities and games in the post-

speaking stage to increase grade 11A4 students’ interest at Chan Mong High school,
Phu Tho Province.
8. Structure of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts:
PART A: INTRODUCTION
PART B: MAJOR CONTENT
Chapter 1: Literature review
Chapter 2: Methodology
Chapter 3- Recommendations and suggestions for using short activities and
games in the post- speaking stage
PART C: CONCLUSION
5
PART B: MAJOR CONTENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. The nature of spoken language
Spoken language is language produced by clear sounds, as opposed to
written language. Many languages have no written form, only have spoken form.
Oral language or vocal language is produced with the vocal tract, as opposed to sign
language, which is produced with the hands and face.
In spoken language, much of the meaning is determined by the context. This
contrasts with written language, in which most of the meaning is provided by the
text. Spoken language tends to convey subjective information, including the
relationship between the speaker and the audience, whereas written language tends
to convey objective information.
According to Vanderkevent (1990) there are three components of speaking:
1.1.1. The speakers
Speakers are those who produce sound. They express opinions or feelings to
the hearers. So if there are no speakers, no opinions or the feelings will be stated.
1.1.2. The listeners
Listeners are those who receive the speaker’s opinions or feeling. If there are

no listeners, speakers will express their opinions by writing.
1.1.3. The Utterances
The utterances are words or sentences, which are produced by the speakers to
state the opinions. If there are no utterances, the speech can’t be done.
1.2. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the importance of
speaking skill
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of
second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the
ultimate goal of learning a language. It simply means a greater emphasis on the use
of the target language in the classroom, and in particular, a greater emphasis on
orality.
According to Kayi (2006), communicative language teaching is based on
real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in ESL
classes, students will have the opportunity to communicate with each other in the
6
target language. Teachers should create a classroom environment where students
have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that
promote oral language. He also recommends some types of classroom activities that
can be used in teaching speaking such as discussion, role plays, simulations,
information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, story completion,
reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing. He says that the
ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to
the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life.
Therefore, it is essential that language teacher should pay great attention to teaching
speaking by providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes
place. With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed above can
contribute a great deal to developing students’ basic interactive skills. These
activities will make students more active in the learning process and at the same
time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them.
1.3. Stages of teaching speaking

According to Brown (2009), a perfect teaching speaking lesson has to follow
three following stages:
1.3.1. Pre- speaking stage
Pre- speaking begins before students actually speak. Pre- speaking activities
involve thought, reflection then provide opportunities for students to plan and
organize for speaking.
Pre - speaking has some purposes such as choosing speaking topic,
determining purpose, audience and format.
1.3.2. While- speaking stage
While- speaking engages students in interactions with peers and other
audiences. Students who have been provided with supportive, environments and
opportunities to prepare for their informal and formal speaking experiences are
more likely to have the confidence to “go public” with their ideas and information.
Some purposes for while- speaking are to express personal feelings, ideas or
viewpoints; to tell a story; to entertain or amuse; to describe; to inform or explain;
to request; to inquire or question; to classify thinking; to explore and experiment
with a variety of ideas and to converse and discuss.
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1.3.3. Post- speaking stage
Post- speaking is a time for reflection and setting goals. Following speaking
experiences, both formal and informal, it is important to have students reflect upon
their performance. Their reflection should include the teacher, who can help them
set personal goals for improving their speaking skill abilities.
1.4. Motivation
1.4.1. Definition
There are many definitions of motivation and one of them is: “Motivation is
the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained” (Schunk et
al., 2004).
Motivation is considered as a process rather than a product. As a process, we
do not observe motivation directly but rather we infer it from actions. Motivation

leads people to achieve a goal. Motivation is what drives people to “behave” in a
certain way of taking a particular action. Simply, it can be understood that
motivation is your “WHY”.
1.4.2. Motivation in classroom setting
Motivating students at every level, from kindergarten to college, takes a
combination of factors within the classroom setting. According to Dornyei (1998),
there are some factors motivating students to achieve good result in learning process
are teacher’s attitude, teaching approach, interactive activities and home situation.
Teacher’s Attitude
Teacher’s attitude makes a difference in motivating students. Students will
quickly sense when a teacher is disconnected with what she's teaching or when she
really doesn't care for or isn't connected with the students.
Teaching Approach
Lectures and a recitation sometimes make students bored and lack of
motivation. However, when the students become part of the learning process,
learning can become more enjoyable and adaptable with different styles. Students
will get a lot motivation if teachers help them “see” what they're learning in a
different context. When students connect better with what they're learning, they can
become more motivated.
Interactive Activities
8
Using interactive activities such as having students act out plays on the topic
or writing scripts can become motivating factors for positive classroom
participation. Also, the use of puzzles, games or special speakers are factors that can
affect classroom motivation. Encouraging students to set goals in the classroom can
also provide motivation.
Home Situation
Home situations affect student motivation in the classroom. If students come
from homes where they are loved and encouraged, the students will approach
classroom work with eagerness and with a willingness to learn. If the students do

not have a positive home environment or if the home situation doesn't provide
appropriate levels of nutrition and/or sleep, students attend school with a
disadvantage and a lack of motivation because of physical or emotional problems.
1.5. Speaking activities
1.5.1. Factors of a successful speaking activity
Speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the most
demanding of the four skills. When attempting to speak, learners must concentrate
on their thoughts and encode their ideas in vocabulary and syntactic structures of
the target language. According to Kathleen and Savage (1993), depending on the
formality and importance of the speech situations as well as their own personal
linguistic propensities, the learners may also attend to monitor their output
(speaking skill).
Sharing this idea, Ur (1996) indicates the four following prerequisites of a
successful speaking activity in the classroom:
Learners talk a lot: during speaking skill activities, learners should have
chances to talk a lot to develop their oral skill.
Participants are even: all learners are involved in the activities and their
distribution for speaking chance are the same.
Motivation is high: all the leaners are interested in talking and positively
participate in speaking activities.
Language is of an appropriate level: this means that the language used by
teachers and learners to express their ideas and thoughts is understandable to others.
9
Thus, from the factors mentioned above, it can be inferred that teachers
should take the factors into consideration when teaching speaking skill.
1.5.2. Problems with speaking activities
Speaking is a productive skill. It is done by using the voice to point out the
meaning to other people. Speaking activities includes many aspects such as:
vocabulary, grammar, interaction, body language, etc. The differences in the
categories above lead to different types of speaking that we produce.

In learning speaking skill, the students often face some problems. The problems
frequently state are lack of confidence, nothing to say, low or uneven participation
and mother- tongue use. Ur (1996) has discussed the four common problems above.
The first problem is lack of confidence. Unlike the other skills such as
reading, listening, and writing, speaking requires some degree of real- time
exposure to an audience. Some often feel stressed when having to speak in a foreign
language in front of the whole class: worried about making mistakes, fearful of
criticism or losing face, or simply shy.
The second problem is that students sometimes think they have nothing to
say on a particular topic. In reality, they may be bored or feel that the topic is
unrelated to anything they know. Students often lack confidence in speaking and
feel they have insufficient language skills to express exactly what they want to say.
They have no knowledge of the target topic and enough vocabulary to talk. As a
result, they are not motivated to speak.
The third problem is low or uneven participation. This problem makes
difficulties for more reserved students to express themselves freely. Active students
tend to create an environment in the English speaking language class where more
shy students are quite happy to sit back and watch the lesson instead of
participating. In the other words, in a large group, some members tend to dominate,
while others speak very little or not at all.
In addition, mother- tongue use is also a popular problem occurs in speaking
lessons. Students who often use their mother tongue are fearful of making mistakes
and need to be encouraged to speak English. In classes where all the learners share
the same mother- tongue, they may tend to use it because it is easier; because they
10
feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because they feel
less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother- tongue.
In speaking, students may be shy and afraid to take part in the conversation
because of these problems. In order for the learners to develop their communicative
skills, it is advised that the language teachers should help the learners to overcome

these problems with speaking activities.
1.5.3. Solutions to the problems with speaking activities
Teaching English as a second language means being able to solve problems
students may have in acquiring certain language skills. In order to solve the problem
of learning and teaching speaking skill, Ur (1996) offers the following solutions:
Group work: Group work increases the amount of time available for oral
practice and allows more than one student to benefit from speaking time. Working
in groups also lowers the inhibitions of shy students who are not comfortable
speaking in front of the whole class.
Easy language: Simple language makes it easier for students to speak for
longer without hesitation and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Essential
vocabulary can be pre-taught or reviewed before the activity enabling students to
fill-out their speech with more interesting sentences and rich language.
Interesting topic: Choosing a topic according to the interests of the class
ensures student motivation. If the material and task instructions are presented
clearly and enthusiastically, students will be more likely to meet the challenge set
for them.
Clear guidelines: Stating clearly what is expected from each student is
essential in ensuring that everyone in the group contributes towards the discussion.
Appointing a leader to each group to regulate participation is a way to make sure
that dominant students leave discussion opportunities open to more reserved
students. Feedback exposes the results of the discussion and motivates each student
to follow the guidelines.
English monitors: Teacher might appoint one of the groups as the monitor
because a monitor can be appointed to each group to remind students not to speak
their mother tongue. A lack of classroom management and discipline will encourage
students easily comeback to use mother tongue as soon as they have problems.
11
Therefore, the best way to keep students speaking the target language is that the
teacher should be there as much as possible, reminding them and modeling the

language use and there is no substitute for nagging.
In short, teachers should take mentioned ways into consideration and base on
certain situations of each group to find out their own method to enhance speaking
skill for their students.
1.6. Short activities and games
1.6.1. The role of short activities and games in language teaching and learning
process
Short activities and games (or communicative activities) really play an
important part in language teaching and learning. Their role in language teaching
and learning has been confirmed by many researchers. Rodgers (2001) holds that
“communicative activities enable learners to achieve communicative objectives of
the curriculum and engage them in communication”. In addition, Krashen (1982)
assumes that language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages, not
when it is taught explicitly. So using communicative activities provides students
with opportunities to convey messages in authentic communication. Actually,
communicative activities are a necessary part in language teaching and learning
because they have a lot of advantages.
Firstly, short activities and games encourage students’ interest because they
ensure that communication is purposeful rather than artificial. A variety of
communicative activities provides learners with something meaningful to do and
gives them freedom to choose the meaning they want to express. They bring their
backgrounds and experiences to class and make their own decisions, creating more
interest and excitement and thus facilitate and stimulate learning process.
Secondly, short activities and games offer opportunities to develop listening,
speaking, reading and writing as well as to obtain intercultural and interactional
competence in English. Communicative activities can also help develop cognitive
ability such as analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information.
In addition, through communicative activities the students are encouraged to
participate with their classmates actively. Short activities and games are often
conducted with pair work and group work in which students talk to many partners

12
and interact with them. This brings learners a feeling of security because they feel
easier to speak.
Finally, short activities and games such as working in groups, in pairs or
singing etc. create a relatively safe environment for making mistakes a long with
relaxed atmosphere, for there is little error correction or distract attention.
Moreover, students have a lot of fun when they learn with communicative activities.
This reduces their stress and anxiety about their performance.
In conclusion, short activities and games can both bring about proficiency
and greatly improve communicative competence.
1.6.2. Principles of using short activities and games in speaking class
Besides some principles that Ur (1996) has discusses, there are some things that
teachers should remember when using short activities and games:
Good preparation: Careful prepared short activities or games is one key to
maintain the control of the class and the interest of the students. To have a good
preparation, teachers should know for sure the purpose of using the activities or
games, how to carry out it and how it is carried out the most effectively for the
activities and games.
Simple activities and games: It means they last short time and easy for
students to understand.
Good class organization: Teacher should divide class into small groups or
teams and must be sure that there is a balance in the level students in each group.
In short, teachers should understand and pay attention to these principles
before using short activities and games in speaking class.
1.6.3. Common types of short activities and games used for the post- speaking stage
There are various short activities and games that can be used for the post-
speaking stage. However, John and Dougill (1987) introduced some activities such
as Discussion, Role Play, Information Gap, Storytelling, Interviews, Reporting,
Playing Cards and Picture Description because of their typical characters and
usefulness.

1.6.3.1. Discussion
Discussion can be used when students are required to share ideas or finds
solutions to an issue or a problem. Before the discussion, the teacher should set the
13
purpose of the discussion clearly to get the student’ attention, do not let students
spend their time on chatting with each other about irrelevant things. For example, in
agree/disagree discussion, the teacher can form groups of students and provide
controversial topics. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period,
and presents their opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be
equally divided among group members. At the end, the class decides on the winning
group who defended the idea in the best way.
For efficient group discussions, it is not good to form large groups because
quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The teachers should notice
that in class or group discussions, the students should always be encouraged to ask
questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.
1.6.3.2. Role play
Role play consist of Scripted role play that the interpreting depends on the
text book dialogue and Unscripted role play which the students can decide what
language to use and how the conversation should develop freely. Role Play is useful
in teaching speaking because it gives students an opportunity to practice
communicating in different social context and in different social roles. It also allows
students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s position. In Role
Play, students are assigned roles and put into situations that they may eventually
encounter outside the classroom.
The aim of using role play in teaching speaking is to encourage students
thinking and creativity, let students develop and practice new language and
behavioral skills in a relatively non-threatening setting, and can create the
motivation and involvement necessary for learning to occur.
1.6.3.3. Information gap
An information gap activity takes place between students, not between a

student and a teacher, though a teacher can certainly demonstrate the activity. The
two students will be asking each other questions to which they don’t know the
answer; these questions are called referential questions (a question to which the
person asking does not know the answer).
The goal of the activity is for the students to discover certain information,
whether about the other person or related to a specific activity. These activities help
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move the students from working in a more structured environment into a more
communicative environment; they are expected to use lots of the target language,
and in the process discovering where they have gaps. Knowing where these gaps are
gives them a direction in which to improve.
1.6.3.4. Storytelling
Storytelling involves having students retell stories or text selections that they
have listened to or read. It encourages students to actively speak up, improve their
vocabulary, and train their pronunciation and fluency. It allows the students to
communicate well using a foreign language they are learning. It also helps students
express ideas in the format or beginning, development, and ending, including the
characters and setting of a story.
1.6.3.5. Interviews
Interview is an effective technique in teaching speaking. Student can conduct
interview on selected topics with various people. Moreover, students can interview
each other and “introduce” his or her partner to the class.
Interview poses a number of advantages. Conducting interviews with
partners gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class
but also outside and help them become socialized. Moreover, interviews in pairs or
in groups not only contribute an atmosphere of healthy competition in a non-
stressful situation but also provide immediate feedback for the learners.
1.6.3.6. Reporting
Students are asked to watch a specific program on a specific channel. Then,
the students could be asked to report back what they have seen and express their

views concerning what was presented in the program. Or the teachers can ask the
students to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends
what they find as the most interesting news. Students can also retell his/ her special
activities which they have experienced to their friends.
1.6.3.7. Playing cards
In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a
topic. For instance:
Diamonds: Earning money
Hearts: Love and relationships
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Spades: An unforgettable memory
Clubs: Best teacher
Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5
questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example, if the
topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:
How is money important in your life? Why?
What is the easiest way of earning money?
What do you think about lottery?
However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that
students are not allowed to prepare Yes- No questions, because by saying Yes or No
students get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask
open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.
1.6.3.8. Picture description
In this activity, teacher provides an interesting picture for the class or each
group of students and asks them questions about it. For example: What is in the
picture? Who is in the picture? What they are doing? According Kayi (2006), in
picture describing activity, students can form groups and each group is given a
different picture. Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a
representative describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the
creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
In the previous chapter, the researcher has given the literature review about
the nature of spoken language, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), stages
of teaching speaking, motivation, speaking activities and some short activities and
games used for post- speaking stage. In this chapter, the researcher provides an
overview about the subject of the study, the description of the questionnaire surveys
which consists of three questionnaires: one for the teachers and two for the students,
and then analyzes the data.
2.1. Overview of the survey
2.1.1. Aims of the survey
In order to meet the need of the learners, English teachers are largely
challenged by the matter how to make speaking lessons more effective.
Communicative ability is main goal of teaching and learning speaking skill at High
schools in general and in Chan Mong High school in particular. However, this aim
is not always achieved. To deeply understand the reasons why, the research would
like to investigate the teachers and students’ attitudes in Chan Mong High school
towards the speaking skill as well as the post-speaking stage, and how the short
activities and games in the post- speaking stage work in English speaking classes of
English at Chan Mong High school.
2.1.2. Participants and setting
The study is carried out in the second semester of the school year 2014- 2015
at Chan Mong High school, Doan Hung District, Phu Tho Province. The subjects of
the study consist of two groups: six English teachers and thirty six students of 11A4
class at Chan Mong High school.
2.1.2.1. The teachers
The questionnaire survey for teachers is conducted with total six English
teachers during six weeks at Chan Mong High school.
All of the teachers graduated from Universities. They are between 24 to 45
years old. One of the teachers has just taught for 1 year, three of them have been

teaching for 14- 15 years and the others have over 22 years of teaching experience.
Their teaching programs are mainly based on the English textbook published by the
National Education Publishing House in which students have to learn four skills:
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listening, speaking, reading, writing and two language aspects: grammar and
vocabulary. However, there is a fact that the teacher pays more attention to teaching
reading and grammar. They find it hard to make their students communicate more
in English. They do not know how to improve the motivation of students in
speaking English. All of them have ever used short activities and games in teaching
speaking but not regularly. They often use these activities and games in the pre-or
while- speaking stage rather than in the post- speaking stage. Therefore, students’
interest sometimes decreases at the end of speaking lessons.
2.1.2.2. The students
The participants of the survey are thirty six students of 11A4 class at Chan
Mong High school. They almost come from the countryside of Doan Hung District,
Phu Tho Province. They are both males and females aged from sixteenth to
seventeenth. Most of them have been learning English for four years at Secondary
school and first year at High school.
2.2. Description of the questionnaire surveys
Reason for choosing questionnaire surveys:
In order to have information and data for the study, the researcher has
designed the questionnaire surveys. The researcher chooses the questionnaire
surveys because of some following reasons:
According to Rodgers (2001), questionnaires are “useful ways of gathering
information about effective dimension of teaching and learning, such as beliefs,
attitude, motivation, preference and permit the researcher to collect a large amount
of relative information quickly”.
Another advantage of it is the data is easy to collect because all participants
answered the same questions. Most importantly, the questionnaires give participants
an opportunity to express their opinions and feelings without fearing or being

embarrassed. The teachers and the students are free to give impartial answers
because the confidentiality is ensured by not mentioning students and teachers’
name. This is very important since it supplies some exact and valuable information
for this study.
The last reason for this choice is that questionnaire survey is money saving.
The collector only spends little money on the preparation.