A study on the use of communicative activities to enhance 12th grade students'' speaking skill in Hong Lam upper secondary school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI KIEU VAN
A STUDY ON THE USE OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
TO ENHANCE 12
th
GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL
IN HONG LAM UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
NGHE AN - 2014
2
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
NGUYEN THI KIEU VAN
A STUDY ON THE USE OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
TO ENHANCE 12
th
GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL
IN HONG LAM UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Code: 60.14.01.11
MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION
Supervisor: Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D
Nghe An, 2014
4
ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Kieu Van, being a candidate for the degree
of Master accept requirements of the College related to the retention and use of
Master’s graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan
or reproduction of the thesis.
September, 2014
Signature
Nguyen Thi Kieu Van
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study would not have been completed without the support of many
people, to all of whom I am profoundly indebted.
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor
Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D for the continuous support of my M.A study and research,
for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance
helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have
imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my M.A study.
Also, sincere thanks are due to the teachers and 12
th
students at Hong Lam
Upper Secondary School for allowing me to administer the test and interview
schedule during their invaluable time class. Without their patience in participating
in doing questionnaires as well as interviews, the study could not have been
completed.
Last but not least, I would love to send my gratitude to my family, especially
my husband and friends for their continual encouragements during the time I
conducted the study.
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ABSTRACT
Although speaking is recognized as a crucial part of second language
teaching, it has been undervalued by English teachers in Vietnamese classrooms.

Many teachers are still using traditional techniques such as repetition drills and
memorization of dialogues. The use of communicative activities, in spite of having
been known to teachers in Vietnam, has been really limited due to many reasons,
such as teachers’ low proficiency, class size, limited teaching facilities, and tight
teaching schedules.
There have been a few research studies that investigated effectiveness of
communicative activities in the classroom in some part of the world. However, very
few studies have been conducted in Vietnam about how teachers and students
perceived about these activities in upper secondary schools. Especially, no research
has been carried out in Hong Lam Upper Secondary School.
This research study aims to investigate the use of communicative activities to
enhance speaking skill for 12
th
grade students in Hong Lam UPSS. It uses two sets
of questionnaires for teachers and students in Hong Lam Upper Secondary School.
A total of survey questionnaires for teachers and survey questionnaires for students
were collected. The data collected were coded in charts and percentage was yielded
and figures were built as to address the research questions.
The data showed that the majority of the student participants were inclined to
communicative activities. As for the teachers, based on the results of the study, a
number of implications and suggestions have been provided for teachers, students,
policy makers, and researchers. The findings of this study, being a case study,
cannot be generalized, but they contribute to the academic understanding of a
context where little research has been done.
Generally, the students are not interested in doing speaking tasks that are
given in the textbooks. Also, they are not aware of whether these tasks are effective
for them or not. Nevertheless, they express their desire for some types of
communicative activities that they have chances to work with.
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For the teachers, most of them admit that they often have difficulties in using

communicative activities to teach speaking skill for their 12
th
grade students.
The study aims to serve as a useful source of reference for teachers, students
and those who are interested in this subject matter.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ACCEPTANCE I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II
ABSTRACT III
TABLE OF CONTENTS V
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES VII
ABBREVIATIONS IX
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. RATIONALE 1
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY 2
1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3
1.4. METHODS OF THE STUDY 3
1.5. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 3
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES 5
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 7
2.2.1. DEFINITION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 7
2.2.2. FEATURES OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 8
2.2.3. TYPES OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 9
2.2.4. FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 15
2.3. SPEAKING 23

2.3.1. SPEAKING AS A SKILL 23
2.3.2. THE ROLE OF SPEAKING IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 24
2.3.3. APPROACHES TO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING 26
2.3.4. TEACHING SPEAKING IN RURAL AREAS 29
2.3.5. TEACHING SPEAKING IN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL 29
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY 31
3.1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH SITE 31
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3.2. PARTICIPANTS 32
3.3. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION 32
3.3.1. INSTRUMENTAL DEVELOPMENT 33
3.3.2. PROCEDURES OF DATA COLLECTION 34
3.3.3. METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF DATA ANALYSIS 35
3.4. SUMMARY 36
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 37
4.1. EVALUATION OF THE ENGLISH 12 TEXTBOOK 37
4.1.1. OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH 12 TEXTBOOK 37
4.1.2. EVALUATION OF SPEAKING SKILL 38
4.2. RESULTS FROM THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 41
4.2.1. THE FREQUENCY AND INTEREST OF EACH KIND OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN CLASS 44
4.2.2. DIFFICULTIES THAT THE TEACHERS HAVE WHEN USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 49
4.3. DISCUSSION 50
4.4. IMPLICATIONS 52
4.4.1. IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING EACH KIND OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 52
4.4.2. GIVING STUDENTS INSPIRATION BY ACTIVITIES INVOLVING THE LESSON 58
4.4.3. USING THE SITUATION IN INTRODUCTION 59
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION 60

5.1. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 60
5.2. LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 62
5.3. FURTHER RESEARCH 62
REFERENCES 64
APPENDIX A 67
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Pages
Tables:
TABLE 3.1. SUMMARY OF SELECTED STUDENTS 32
TABLE 4.1. TOPICS IN ENGLISH 12 37
FIGURE 4.1. THE FREQUENCY OF USING SPEAKING TASKS IN TEXTBOOK 42
FIGURE 4.2. THE ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS TOWARDS DOING SPEAKING
TASKS IN TEXTBOOK 42
TABLE 4.2. STUDENTS' EVALUATIVE ATTITUDES TOWARD TEXTBOOK SPEAKING
TASKS 43
FIGURE 4.3. THE EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SPEAKING
TASKS IN TEXTBOOK 43
FIGURE 4.4. THE FREQUENCY OF USING ACTING FROM A SCRIPT/SIMULATION
AND ROLE PLAY, GIVEN BY STUDENTS 44
FIGURE 4.5. THE FREQUENCY OF USING ACTING FROM A SCRIPT/SIMULATION
AND ROLE PLAY, GIVEN BY TEACHER 45
FIGURE 4.6. INTEREST IN ACTING FROM A SCRIPT/SIMULATION
AND ROLE PLAY, GIVEN BY STUDENTS 45
FIGURE 4.7. THE FREQUENCY OF USING COMMUNICATION GAMES,
GIVEN BY STUDENTS 46
FIGURE 4.8. THE FREQUENCY OF USING COMMUNICATION GAMES,
GIVEN BY TEACHERS 46
FIGURE 4.9. THE INTEREST OF USING COMMUNICATION GAMES 47
FIGURE 4.10. THE FREQUENCY OF USING DISCUSSION IN CLASS, GIVEN BY

STUDENTS 48
FIGURE 4.11. THE FREQUENCY OF USING DISCUSSION IN CLASS,
GIVEN BY TEACHERS 48
FIGURE 4.12. INTEREST OF THE STUDENTS IN DISCUSSION 49
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FIGURE 4.13. SOME KINDS OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES THAT TEACHERS HAVE
DIFFICULTIES WHEN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL 50
viii
ABBREVIATIONS
EFL : English as a Foreign Language
UPSS : Upper Secondary School
HFLSS : Hanoi Foreign Language Specializing School
C.A : Communicative Activities
CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
MOET : Ministry of Education and Training

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In the flow of global integration trend, English has become indispensable
means in communication over the world. The importance of English has been
realized in Vietnam because English is considered to play a crucial role on the path
of industrialization and modernization of the country, English is now taught in
almost every school, college, university and language centre all over the country.
One of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at school is that
of training students to be communicatively competent. At Hong Lam UPSS, like at
many other Upper Secondary Schools in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory
subject in secondary curriculum for many years. The fact is that, due to the demand
of the Upper Secondary School graduation and university entrance examinations,

the students' focus is on grammar and vocabulary, which means little attention has
been paid to speaking skill.
Besides, teaching English at school is mainly performed with a traditional
method - the Grammar Translation method, which focuses mainly on grammatical
and vocabulary items. As a result, students who are passive recipients become
structurally competent but communicatively incompetent.
While speaking may be a necessity for school leavers, and may serve as a
“keystone” in successful communication, evidence shows that too many school
students are unwilling to take part in speaking activities in class. This may be
caused by many factors, among which is the lack of useful activities.
The achievement of a lesson fully depends on students’ active participation.
So that for the students, the lesson should also be fascinating and motivating to
them. To motivate students, communicative activities (including games and
activities) (Simon, 1984) need to be carefully designed and effectively used in
speaking lessons because “communicative games and activities provide an
1
opportunity for learners to try out their newly acquired competence in a context
where they feel psychological secure” (Simon, 1984, p.6) Therefore, it is really
essential to know whether the communicative activities have the good effects on
teaching speaking skill to the students of Hong Lam UPSS.
With the aim to access the method on teaching speaking skill through the
communicative activities, I would like to choose this topic. In Vietnam, there
have been a few studies on communicative activities in English learning and
teaching. Yet no researcher has conducted investigation into the communicative
activities to enhance speaking skill for 12
th
grade students in rural areas such as
at Hong Lam UPSS.
1.2. Aims of the study
According to the importance of the participation of students in speaking

lessons, this study aims at investigating the use of communicative activities to
enhance speaking skill for 12
th
grade students in Hong Lam UPSS.
With the reasons mentioned above, the specific aims of the study,
accordingly, are:
+ To investigate the current English speaking teaching and learning situation
at Hong Lam UPSS.
+ To explore the teachers’ viewpoints in the necessity of applying the
communicative activities in teaching speaking skill.
+ To learn about the students’ attitude toward practicing their speaking skill
through the communicative activities.
+ To find out the students’ problems in speaking skill and elements leading
to such difficulties.
+ To provide strategies to overcome such difficulties and give some
suggestions pedagogical suggestions to apply communicative activities in speaking
lessons.
In order to serve the above mentioned objectives, the researcher hopes to find
out the answers to the following questions:
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Research question 1: To what extent are speaking tasks from the textbook
used by the 12
th
grade students in Hong Lam UPSS?
Research question 2: What are the attitudes of students toward using the
communicative activities in speaking skill?
Research question 3: What are difficulties that teachers have in teaching
speaking skill via the communicative activities?
1.3. Scope of the study
Within the scope of graduation paper and due to the limitation of time, the

study can not cover all classes in Hong lam UPSS, I just hope to concentrate on the
situation of the 12
th
grade. Moreover, although the communicative activities could
be used widely in all four skills, the study is in dealing with the speaking skill only.
Participants in this study are students from three 12
th
grade classes, Hong
Lam UPSS, Hong Linh town, Ha Tinh province.
1.4. Methods of the study
The study firstly employs a quantitative approach in order to accomplish the
aims of the study. Survey questionnaires for the 12
th
grade students and survey
questionnaires for teachers at Hong Lam UPSS are delivered to collect the data as
the basis for evaluation and conclusion at the end of the study. Moreover, the
researcher also carries out the evaluating of English 12 textbook in order to get the
general English teaching context at Upper Secondary School.
1.5. The organization of the thesis
This thesis contains five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This present chapter provides general information about the study, including
rationale, aims, scope of the study, and an overview about the research
methodology.
Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter introduces the theoretical foundations for the whole thesis.
Besides providing the definitions of key terms such as communicative activity and
speaking skill, the chapter presents some of the basic issues in relation to some
3
theoretical questions and related studies on communicative activities, as well as the

role of communicative activities in enhancing speaking skill for students;
Chapter 3: Methodology
The chapter covers the research design, information about the participants,
the instruments, the three-phase procedure of collecting data and the procedure of
processing data from the survey questionnaire and interviews.
Chapter 4: Results and implications
This chapter presents and discusses the findings, which give comprehensive
answers to the three research questions through the data taken from the survey
questionnaire for students and teachers analyzed and categorized. The findings are
used as the cornerstone for the recommendations in the next chapter.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
The chapter summarizes significant findings, highlight contributions of the
research, puts forward practical suggestions for future research as well as
addressees notable limitations.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter, as its name suggests, provides an overview of the literature
related to this study, laying the solid foundations for the subsequence development
for the paper. Not only are key terms like communicative activity, speaking skill
defined but critical background information about the key terms is also presented to
ensure a thorough understanding of the research matters. Besides, this review will
reveal the research gap, thus rationalizing the need to carry out the study.
2.1. Review of previous studies
In recent years, it is seen that a large body of research has investigated into
applying Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or Communicative Approach
in teaching English language aspects as well as the four language skills. Among
them, the issues of applying communicative activities into teaching speaking skills
have drawn attention of many educators as well as researchers. There were some
studies that refer to some aspects of the topic. One of the most relevant is “Some

problems in speaking activities of freshmen of English Department of College of
Foreign Languages” by Phuong Lan Le. Her study had a part that mainly focuses on
“pointing out types of speaking activities freshmen like best” … (p.10). However,
to concentrate on the goal, the study should have made survey questionnaires such
as which activities that the freshmen like best instead of asking them about only the
activities she often does. The question only helps her find out what freshmen do in
speaking class. Moreover, it seems that she feels interested when she does what she
likes, so the question “How do you feel in the speaking activities” and “how is your
class atmosphere in speaking” was redundant. In the list of the activities for the
freshmen to choose, there were some activities that seem to be not relevant. Group
work and pair work are only the way that an activity is done not a kind of activity.
Because of it, the result of the survey was not completely exact. One of the
pioneering studies on the application of eliciting techniques into English lessons is
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“Eliciting spontaneous speech in bilingual students: Methods and techniques” by
Cornejo, Ricardo and Najar (1983). Some other innovative techniques were put
forward to foster students’ spontaneous conversations, both with their teachers
and students. While the study could provide significant background theory and
practical recommendations, it still had two perceivable limitations. Since it was
conducted outside Vietnam, the scope of the study did not seem relevant to the
Vietnamese language teaching and learning context. In addition, the subjects of the
study were bilingual students whose culture, education and other conditions were
totally different from Vietnamese EFL students’. The gap that no specifications for
Vietnamese students were made as communicative language teaching became the
most prevailing approach implemented in almost every upper-secondary school in
Vietnam, there have been several studies on the field. The first one is “Using
elicitation techniques to teach Vocabulary to 11th form students in Hanoi” by
Pham (2006). On shedding light on the issue, the author attempted to investigate
three aspects: the situation of teaching vocabulary to 11th form students in Hanoi,
the application of elicitation techniques to teach vocabulary to these subjects and

pedagogical recommendations to make a better use of elicitation techniques in
teaching vocabulary. Knowing that his effort in conducting this study was
praiseworthy and the findings had a significant contribution to the field, there were
still some limitations that should be addressed. Firstly, the study centered on the
teaching vocabulary. Although this was one of three core teaching components
where the employment of elicitation techniques could be considered a must in
modern EFL classrooms, the results of a thorough investigation into this field only
could not represent that of the others namely grammar, pronunciation and four
macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Secondly, the classroom
settings where the survey of this research was conducted were not yet introduced
the new textbook which still followed the old teaching methods.
One year later, another research on enhancing speaking skill was carried out
by Tran (2007) named “eliciting technique to teach speaking skill to grade-10
6
students in HFLSS”. Firstly, she investigated the real situation of teachers’ using
eliciting techniques to teach 10
th
grade students in HFLSS in Hanoi. Outstanding
advantages of this practice could be drawn out. Hindrances to the employment
process of this technique were diagnosed for timely and necessary pedagogical
adjustments. Notably, the author gave a close look at the speaking skill as the focus.
It means that the whole study shed light on the issue of how to employ eliciting
technique to teach speaking skill, not others. This can be seen as the first limitation
of the study. The second problem is that the subjects of the study were students
from FLSS only, which could hardly be generalized into a wider population of other
institutions across the city and country.
These listed gaps intensify the significance of the current study which targets
at techniques teachers use to elicit students’ talk to develop numerous skills
simultaneously, rather than any single one, and among grade 12 students in
some selected classes in Hong Lam UPSS.

Therefore, the study mainly focuses on investigating on applying the
communicative activities into teaching speaking English language to 12
th
grade
students in Hong Lam UPSS. The result of the study can be the good foundation of
next ones so that it could help educators multiply teaching methods and students
enhance their speaking skill.
2.2. Theoretical background of communicative activities
2.2.1. Definition of the communicative activities
There have been so far many researches on the theory of communicative
activities which have generally come to a conclusion that communicative activities
include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen
to other learners, as well as with people in the program and community.
Communicative activities have real purposes: to find information, break down
barriers, talk about self, and learn about the culture. In speaking class,
communicative activities are often employed because the use of communicative
activities is a way to improve the students’ ability to use the language meaningfully.
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Also, they can alter the environment of speaking lesson (Carrier, 1980).This will
make the speaking lesson “a kind of bridge for learners between the classroom and
the world outside” (Hadfield & Hadfield, 1999) more interesting.
Some learners question whether games is a kind of communicative
activities? The answer is yes because according to Carrier (1980), the term “games”
used whenever there is an element of competition between individual students or
team in communicative activities (p.10). The answer is also supported by Noor Eka
Chandra (2008) “it can be said that language games not only function as time filling
activities but also they can bring some educational values that enable the children to
learn the language.
To sum up, a communicative activity is a piece of work that involves all the
learners in; the comprehension of the foreign languages (spoken or written); the

production of the foreign languages (spoken or written) or interaction in the foreign
languages. During a communicative activity, learners’ attention is principally
focused on meaning rather than form, that is, on what is being expressed rather than
on the linguistic forms used for expressing it. In addition, as far as possible, a
communicative activity resembles activity which students or other people carry out
in daily life, thus reproducing processes of daily communication. A communicative
activity is usually part of a sequence which often creates a context for the
activity. Beside, both teachers and learners can evaluate this task, in relation to
both process and outcome. A communicative activity has the ultimate purpose
of developing students’ ability to communicate in English, so it has a pedagogic
purpose.
2.2.2. Features of communicative activities
Communicative activities are categorized by two key features.
Firstly, it must contact with authentic target language. Students are required
to use real language. In classes where communicative language teaching is applied,
students’ attention is not on the code of the language but on the meaning. By using
authentic materials in the classroom, even when it is not in an authentic situation, it
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still provides the learners with many significant advantages (Martinez, 2000).
Martinez (2000) summarized several benefits of using authentic materials. By using
authentic material, students are exposed to real discourse, as in videos of interview
with famous people where intermediate students listen for general idea. Authentic
materials keep students informed about what is happening in the world, so they
have an intrinsic educational value. Language change is reflected in the materials so
that students and teachers can keep abreast of such changes. Reading texts are ideal
to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning, e.g. students are given a news article
and asked to look for specific information. Also, teachers can have students practice
some of the micro-skills of listening, e.g. basically, students listen to news reports
and they are asked to identify the names of countries, famous people, etc. Different
authentic materials such as books, articles, newspapers, and so on contain a wide

variety of text types, and language styles not easily found in conventional teaching
materials. Thus, it can help student extend their vocabulary and help memorize
them in a number of meaningful recycling. Authentic materials can encourage
reading for pleasure because they are likely to contain topics of interest to learners,
especially if students are given the chance to have a say about the topics of kinds of
authentic materials to be used in class. As a result, learners will keep high
motivation and interest in language teaching through these meaningful interactions
with the materials.
Its second feature is experiential property. In contrast, with analytic factor,
experiential feature is global and non-analytic. Learners are invited to use language
for a purpose that is to focus on the message rather than specific aspect of the code.
Through experiential strategy, students become involved in language.
2.2.3. Types of communicative activities
The communicative activities used now are the activities for communication.
Communicative activities are believed to be useful because they carry many
characteristics that promote learning, among of which are enhancing, and eliciting.
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Firstly, enhancing involves the class by focusing students’ attention and
making them think. In the presentation stage, it is likely that teachers will be those
who talk most of the time in order to convey as many new knowledge units as
possible within a certain amount of time while students almost do nothing but listen.
Doff (1988: 159) diagnosed the problem: “Obviously, this part of lesson will be
dominated by the teacher-he or she is using English to introduce new materials”. As
a consequence, students may lose concentration and enthusiasm easily. Henceforth,
if teachers can activate students’ minds more by asking questions, by pushing
them to think and encouraging them to contribute, they will be more engrossed in
the lesson. Also by being required to answer teachers’ questions throughout the
lesson, students can develop their critical and independent thinking together with
many other skills needed for learners of foreign languages. Sooner or later, they can
overcome andeliminate passiveness which is one of inherent weaknesses of

Vietnamese learners.
Secondly, Doff (1988, p. 161) believed that “eliciting encourages students
to draw on what they already know or partly know. Therefore, it is a useful
technique for mixed ability classes or those of different learning backgrounds.”
To draw students’ attention to the new lesson, teachers are often reminded to review
the old one as well as to ask some questions relating to students' experience. While
responding to teacher’s questions, students have a chance to display their
background knowledge, And by sharing knowledge, students, regardless their weak
competence, would learn much from one another. Using eliciting questions is a
useful way of activating the knowledge students have, which is often not disclosed
if not asked.
It is taken for granted that elicitation directly and mainly benefit students.
However, in the meantime, teachers are at great advantage. First, elicitation can be
used for presenting new language as well as reviewing what was taught earlier
(Doff, 1988, p.161). Moreover, eliciting gives teachers a chance to see what
students know and what they do not and so adapt their presentation to the level of
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the class. Therefore, it is suggested that elicitation plays the role as testing tools
that teachers can use to measure the level of the class. In short, communicative
activities are beneficial to both students and teachers. Teachers should take every
chance, when possible, to apply this technique in language classrooms. The
following activities are most popular in speaking classes (Harmer, 2004)
2.2.3.1. Acting from a Script/Simulation and Role-play
The activity is like Simulation and Role -play because they both require the
students to take on roles in the play or in a conversation, etc. Acting from a script
seems to be in simulation and role -play because when the teachers do not have
the students act the script completely, the activity will become Simulation and
Role-play.
Simulation and Role -play has three advantages (Harmer, 2004)
* The students can be good fun and motivating

* They allow hesitant students to be more forthright in their opinion and
behavior than they might be when speaking for themselves, since they do not have
to take the same responsibility for what they are saying.
* By broadening the world of the classroom to include the world outside,
they allow students to use a much wider range of language than some more task-
centered activities may do.
2.2.3.2. Communication games
The activities are used as information gap games (puzzles, draw/describe a
painting, put /describe things in the right order, find the similarities and differences
between two pictures, etc)
The activities make the students talk together more to find the details that are
cut, different or similar. They can help the student think and react more rapidly to
reach the best score. Moreover, the groups in class can take part in the activity to
compete with the other groups to get gifts. The advantage of using games are
summarized by Carrier (1980):
1. Games add variety to the range of learning situations
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2. Games can be used to change the pace of a lesson and so maintain
motivation.
3. Games can be used to punctuate long formal teaching units and renew
students energy before returning to more formal learning.
4. Games can give hidden practice of specific language points without
students being aware of this
5. Games encourage students‘ participation and can remove the inhibitions
of those who feel intimidated by formal classroom situations
6. Games can change the role of the teacher from that of formal instructor to
that of manager or organizer of activities that students enjoy participating in. This
can be useful in reducing teacher students’ distance or conflict
7. Games can act as a testing mechanism, in the sense that they will expose
of weakness and the need for remedial work

This technique is widely advocated by many ELT experts since it is very
effective in many ways. Traditionally, there used to be a common conception that
all learning should be serious and solemn in nature. This is a mere misconception as
it is possible to learn a language and enjoyed oneself at the same time (Lee, 1995, p.
35) Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (1984, p. 1) believed that “language learning is
hard work…Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long
period of time. Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest
and work”. Therefore, it seems that good games can be used during a burdensome
lesson. Communication games help teachers to create contexts in which the
language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do
so they must understand what others are saying or have written, and they must
speak or write in order to express their own point of view or give information
(Wright, 1984, p. 1). If communication games are well-chosen and appropriately
used, they can give students a break and simultaneously create chances for them to
practice new skills in a highly amusing and motivating way (Ersoz, 2000). In order
to fully obtain these benefits, one thing that teachers should take into consideration
is that “whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency
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