A study on the effectiveness of information gap on the tenth grade students participation in speaking classes at nguyen hue high school submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of the degree of bach

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N0.2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

TRẦN HÀ ANH

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP
ON THE TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION
IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NGUYEN HUE HIGH SCHOOL
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

HÀ NỘI, 2016


HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N0.2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

TRẦN HÀ ANH

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP
ON THE TENTH-GRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION
IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NGUYEN HUE HIGH SCHOOL
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ THU THỦY, M.A.

HÀ NỘI, 2016


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would never have been able to finish my research without the guidance of my
supervisor, help from friends, and support from my family.
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor M.A. Nguyễn
Thị Thu Thủy for her patience, encouragement, enthusiasm and continuous support on my
study. Her guidance helped me in all my time of writing the research. I could not have
imagined having a better supervisor and mentor.

My sincere thanks go to all of my fellows for their willingness to help me at any time
when I was lost or in trouble.

Last but not least, I take this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to my family for
their giant support, encouragement and love.

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ABSTRACT
Springing from the practical issue that the students‟ participation in speaking lesson is
quite poor, the researcher was inspired to find out the possible reasons making students
reluctant to raise their voice in class. In general, students‟ involvement suffer from students
themselves related factors, lecturers who directly give them the lesson related factors and
external factors such as classroom climate, curriculum or assessment system, etc. Despite the
fact that the success of a lesson greatly depends on students‟ participation, not many teachers
have paid enough attention into it.
This study is conducted with the aims of presenting the reasons for the poor
participation in speaking class as well as experimenting information gaps into speaking
lessons to see its effectiveness in improving the students‟ participation. The subjects of the
study are students in tenth grade at Nguyen Hue high school. The results collected from
questionnaire, observation sheet and students‟ self-report have proved the success of the study
when information gaps technique does enhance leaners‟ participation in speaking class.

ii


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
Title:
A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION GAP ON THE TENTHGRADE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NGUYEN
HUE HIGH SCHOOL

I hereby certificate that the work submitted in my research is entirely of my own hand,
or, where copied from any other person‟s work has been acknowledged in reference and that
the report is originally written by me under instructions of my supervisor.

Date submitted: Wednesday, 4th April, 2016

Student

Trần Hà Anh

Supervisor

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thủy, M.A.

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LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPH
Tables

Table 1: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 9 ........................................29

Table 2: Times of students‟ participation in group work in Unit 9 .............................30
Table 3: Students‟ opinions on the main activity in Unit 9 .........................................31
Table 4: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 12 ......................................34
Table 5: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 13 ......................................35
Table 6: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 14 ......................................35
Table 7: Times of students‟ on-task participation in Unit 15 ......................................36
Table 8: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 12 ....37
Table 9: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 13 ....37
Table 10: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 14 ..38
Table 11: Times of student‟s participation in information gap activities in Unit 15 ..38
Table 12: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 12 .........................39
Table 13: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 13 .........................39
Table 14: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 14 .........................40
Table 15: Students‟ opinions on information gap activity in Unit 15 .........................40
Table 16: Students‟ attitudes and opinions on information gaps activity....................41
Graph

Graph 1: Students‟ speaking time before and after action plan ...................................42
Graph 2: Students‟ participation frequency before and after action plan ....................43
Graph 3: Numbers of students enjoying the lesson before and after action plan ........44

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. ii
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP........................................................................................iii
LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPH .......................................................................................... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................... v
PART ONE................................................................................................................................ 1
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1
I. Rationale ................................................................................................................................. 1
II. Objectives of the research ...................................................................................................... 2
III. Research questions ............................................................................................................... 2
IV. Research scope ..................................................................................................................... 2
V. Research methods .................................................................................................................. 2
VI. Significance of the research ................................................................................................. 3
VII. Design of the research work................................................................................................ 3
PART TWO .............................................................................................................................. 4
DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 4
I.1. Previous studies .................................................................................................................... 4
I.2. Speaking ............................................................................................................................... 6
I.2.1.What is speaking?............................................................................................................... 6
I.2.2.What is teaching speaking? ................................................................................................ 7
I.2.3.What are techniques for teaching speaking? ...................................................................... 8
I.2.3.1. Story completion ............................................................................................................ 9
I.2.3.2. Role-play ........................................................................................................................ 9
I.2.3.3. Simulation .................................................................................................................... 10
I.2.3.4. Discussion .................................................................................................................... 10
I.2.3.5. Information gaps .......................................................................................................... 11
I.2.3.6. Story-telling.................................................................................................................. 11
I.2.3.7. Interview ...................................................................................................................... 11
I.3. Participation ....................................................................................................................... 12
I.3.1.What is participation?....................................................................................................... 12

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I.3.2.What are benefits of participation? .................................................................................. 12
I.3.3.What are possible negative factors affecting learners' participation? .............................. 13
I.3.3.1. Leaner-related factor .................................................................................................... 13
I.3.3.2. Lecturer-related factor .................................................................................................. 14
I.3.3.3.External factors ............................................................................................................. 14
I.3.3.4.Possible solutions to students‟ participation ................................................................. 15
I.4.Information gaps ................................................................................................................. 16
I.4.1. What is information gaps? .............................................................................................. 16
I.4.2.What is the procedure of information gap? ...................................................................... 17
I.4.3.What are the benefits of using information gap to class participation? ........................... 18
CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................... 19
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 19
II.1. Research methods ............................................................................................................. 19
II.1.1. Definition and rationale for the use of action research .................................................. 19
II.1.2. Action research procedure ............................................................................................. 19
II.1.2.1. Identifying a focus of interest or a problem ................................................................ 19
II.1.2.2. Collecting data ............................................................................................................ 20
II.1.2.3. Analyzing data/Generating hypotheses ...................................................................... 20
II.1.2.4. Planning action steps .................................................................................................. 20
II.1.2.5. Implementing action steps .......................................................................................... 21
II.1.2.6. Collecting data to monitor change .............................................................................. 21
II.1.2.7. Analysis and evaluation .............................................................................................. 21
II.2. Data collection instruments .............................................................................................. 21
II.2.1. Survey questionnaires .................................................................................................... 21
II.2.1.1. Rationale behind the use of survey questionnaire....................................................... 21
II.2.1.2. Construction of the survey questionnaire ................................................................... 22
II.2.1.2.1. Construction of the pre-survey questionnaire (Appendix A)................................... 22
II.2.1.2.2. Construction of the post-survey questionnaire (Appendix B) ................................. 22
II.2.2. Classroom observation ................................................................................................... 23

II.2.2.1. Rationale behind the use of classroom observation .................................................... 23
II.2.2.2. Construction of observation sheet: On-task behavior (Appendix C) .......................... 23
II.2.3. Self - report .................................................................................................................... 24
II.2.3.1. Rationale behind the use of self – report .................................................................... 24
II.2.3.2. Construction of students‟ interaction self-report sheet (Appendix D) ........................ 25

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II.3. Research context ............................................................................................................... 25
II.4. Participants ........................................................................................................................ 25
II.4.1. Teacher........................................................................................................................... 25
II.4.2. The observers ................................................................................................................. 26
II.4.3. The student subjects ....................................................................................................... 26
II.5. Research procedure ........................................................................................................... 26
II.5.1. Identifying the problem ................................................................................................. 26
II.5.2. Collecting the initial data .............................................................................................. 27
II.5.3. Analyzing data and generating hypotheses ................................................................... 27
II.5.4. Planning action ............................................................................................................. 27
II.5.5. Implementing action ..................................................................................................... 27
II.5.6. Collecting data to monitor change ................................................................................. 28
II.5.7. Analyzing and evaluating students‟ participation after action plan .............................. 28
II.6. Data analysis ..................................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER THREE................................................................................................................ 29
RESULTS ................................................................................................................................ 29
III.1. Results of pre-action stage ............................................................................................... 29
III.1.1. Students‟ on-task participation ..................................................................................... 29
III.1.1.1. Result from observation ............................................................................................ 29
III.1.1.2. Result from students‟ self-report ............................................................................... 30
III.1.2. Students‟ attitudes to speaking skill and current speaking classes .............................. 30

III.1.3. Students‟ habit of learning speaking ........................................................................... 31
III.1.4. Reality of students‟ participation in class .................................................................... 32
III.1.5. Reasons for students‟ poor participation ..................................................................... 32
III.1.6. Students‟ preferences for speaking activities .............................................................. 33
III.2. Results of action stage ..................................................................................................... 34
III.2.1. Results from classroom observation ............................................................................. 34
III.2.2. Results from students‟ self-report ................................................................................ 36
III.2.2.1. Students‟ self-report on participation frequency. ...................................................... 36
III.2.2.2. Students‟ opinions on information gap activity......................................................... 38
III.2.3. Results from post survey questionnaire ........................................................................ 41
III.3. Evaluation of the action plan ........................................................................................... 42
III.3.1. The trend of students‟ participation based on observation sheet. ................................. 42
III.3.2. The trend of students‟ participation based on students‟ self-report ............................. 43

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III.3.3. Students‟ opinions on the effectiveness of information gaps ....................................... 44
PART THREE ........................................................................................................................ 46
CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 46
I. Summary of the study ........................................................................................................... 46
II. Limitations and suggestions of the study ............................................................................. 47
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 48
APPENDIX A.......................................................................................................................... 52
APPENDIX B .......................................................................................................................... 58
APPENDIX C.......................................................................................................................... 59
APPENDIX D.......................................................................................................................... 60
APPENDIX E .......................................................................................................................... 61
APPENDIX F .......................................................................................................................... 68
APPENDIX G ......................................................................................................................... 75

APPENDIX H ......................................................................................................................... 83

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PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
Chapter one discusses the rationale, the research questions, the objectives, the scope,
the significance, the methods and the design of the study.
I. Rationale
English is certainly to be the most common international language all over the world
due to the fact that English is used in many sectors including Economy, Policy, Diplomacy,
Tourism, Medicine, Science and Technology, etc. While there are hundreds of different types
of languages spoken in hundreds of countries resulting in the language barrier, English serves
as a bridge to connect people all over the globe. In addition, English can also be used as a tool
for individuals to express their ideas and get others‟ intentions; using English to communicate
is an effective way to associate with people who not only are native speakers of English but
also are able to use it as a second language. Hence, being capable of communicating well in
English is a crucial point for anyone to join a wide community and for any country to
integrate with the whole world.
Taking those reasons into consideration, nowadays more and more people desire to
become skilled at English speaking. Of four main skills named speaking, writing, reading and
listening, Bailey (1993) says that speaking as the center skill and the most demanding.
However, for many high schools in Viet Nam in general and Nguyen Hue high school in
particular, even when students are excellent at writing, reading or listening, speaking is not a
favorite skill for many of them. In fact, to speak English precisely and fluently appears to be a
big challenge indeed. During the time being a trainee teacher in Nguyen Hue high school, the
researcher observed the classes she taught and discovered that students, especially the tenth
grade students at Nguyen Hue high school are quite passive in speaking classes. This finding
was supported by ideas from other teachers that speaking classes were often ineffective

because students rarely interact in English.
Learners' participation in class is quite important to both students themselves and
lecturer. For teachers, students‟ participation helps them know if the students understand what
is going on in the class. It can also help spark class discussions. Toward learners' side,
especially in speaking class, the participation is even more vital for the various reasons such
as giving students the opportunity to practice using the language of the discipline,
encouraging dialogue among and between students, engaging students into the lesson and
enhancing the relationship among them.

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In reality, students' participation can be affected by various factors coming from
teachers, students themselves and other elements. However, what teachers can do seems
restricted to teaching methods or techniques in classes.
In order to raise the students‟ voice in the speaking classes, various activities have been
suggested for English speaking class such as groupwork, discussion, pairwork, debate,
simulation and games (Kayi 2006; David Nunan 2003; Burns, Anne and Helen Joyce 1997).
Of all these activities, information gap is not a new one, yet it hasn‟t been widely used and
proved to be useful in increasing the involvement of the students at Nguyen Hue high school.
All the above-mentioned reasons have inspired the researcher to conduct a study titled
“A study on the effectiveness of information gap on the tenth grade students‟ participation in
speaking classes at Nguyen Hue high school”
II. Objectives of the research
This study aims to achieve the following objectives:
1. To find out the negative factors that affect students‟ participation in speaking classes.
2. To figure out whether information gap can help improving tenth grade students‟
participation in speaking classes.
III. Research questions
In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, some questions are formulated as follow:

1.

What are the reasons for students‟ poor participation in speaking classes?

2.

Can information gap improve tenth grade students' participation in speaking classes?

IV. Research scope
The focuses of the study are the factors leading to students' poor participation in
speaking classes and effectiveness of information gap on the tenth grade students‟
participation in speaking classes. Students‟ participation in speaking class is expressed in
various ways, nevertheless, with the scope of this minor graduation, only oral participation
when students speak or interact in English was studied.
The subjects of the study are 44 students of class 10E at Nguyen Hue high school.
V. Research methods
In order to set up a firm theoretical background for the study, relevant publications are
critically reviewed.
To collect the data, the following techniques have been applied: Survey
questionnaires, classroom observation and self-report.

2


VI. Significance of the research
After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful for the teachers in
identifying the problems preventing students from joining activities in the speaking classes
and using information gap righteously to increase the students‟ involvement throughout the
classes.
For the students, the research is expected to help them realize the barriers that hold

them back in speaking classes and help them take part in class more actively.
VII. Design of the research work
The research work has three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.


Part 1: The Introduction consists of the rationale, the objectives, the questions, the
scope, the method, the significance and the design of the study.



Part2: The “Development” consists of three chapters:

-

Chapter one is entitled “Literature Review”. This chapter reviews the previous studies,

the literature review in brief, the definitions of speaking, teaching speaking, techniques for
teaching speaking as well as the definition and benefits of participation to speaking class and
some negative factors affecting students‟ participation.
-

Chapter two is entitled “Methodology”. It describes the research method used in this

research. It is composed of the description of the subjects and the procedures of making
research.
-

Chapter three named “Results” shows the results in detail
 Part 3: The “Conclusion” provides the summary, limitations of the study and
suggested some ideas for further studies.

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PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter involves the literature review in brief, some issues related to speaking
and participation.
I.1. Previous studies
Meyers, D.M. (2003) in “The Impact of Virtual Office Hours on In-class
Participation” highlighted the need for teachers to continuously adapt to the ever-changing
nature of the learner. In an era where students are increasingly deficient in interpersonal skills,
it may prove useful to leverage the new technologies that have replaced casual conversation.
Meyers suggests that teachers might reach out to students via the Internet to promote studentteacher interactions outside the traditional classroom. He poses the idea that students may feel
more comfortable expressing their ideas and opinions in a “virtual classroom.”
A study entitled “What Does it Mean to Participate in Class?: Integrity and
Inconsistency in Classroom Interaction. Journal of Classroom Interaction” (Moguel, 2004)
had attempted to answer the question “How can a teacher education program enable teacher
candidates to encourage greater participation and interactions in their classrooms?” This is an
insightful article that reveals the perceptions of six candidates about entering the teaching
profession. It raises the question of where new teachers get their ideas about classroom
participation and whether these ideas change over time. Moguel points out that teachers do
not necessarily learn how to teach during the formal portion of their teaching education.
Rather, they tend to imitate the teaching behavior that they have seen modeled since their
entrance into the public education system at a very young age, despite what they intend to do
or what behavior they might think they are displaying.
Pomerantz, E.D. (1998) conducted his work named “What Do Students Learn From
Classroom Discussion? Exploring the Effects of Instructional Conversations on College
Students’ Learning”. This study was intended to investigate the relationship between

classroom discussion and literacy development in a college developmental reading classroom.
It investigated the use of instructional conversation in a classroom full of students with
learning disabilities or for whom English was not the primary language. In this study, both the

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students and the teachers perceived many benefits of instructional conversations, including
greater text comprehension, learning about different perspectives, improved social and
communication skills, and increased opportunities for students to share experiences and
knowledge with each other and the teacher. The author concluded that classroom participation
alone might not be sufficient to improve student academic performance. He cautioned that
teachers should not allow themselves to trivialize the value of direct instruction, depending
upon the needs of the students.
Reynolds, K.C., & Nunn, C.E. (1997) investigate the frequency of interaction in
undergraduate classrooms. It is particularly interesting in that it examines the differences in
levels of participation between freshman and upperclassmen. Using survey data, the study
also attempts to dissect the reasons that freshman either participate or remain silent in the
classroom and compare this to the motivating factors that influence upperclassmen. Finally,
the study attempts to categorize the instructors' behaviors that both groups of students feel
best encouraged as a reward for their interaction.
In 2010, Kelly A.Rocca conducted as study entitled “Student Participation in the
College Classroom: An Extended Multidisciplinary Literature Review” with the goal to
integrate previous research conducted on student participation in the college classroom and
synthesized those information in the form of an extensive literature review. After the research,
he concludes that logistical issues, student confidence, and the instructor him/herself all have
a significant impact on student participation. A supportive classroom climate is critical to
higher levels of participation. The findings on sex are mixed and the distance-learning
research is just getting underway.
In Malaysia, SitiMazihaMustaphaa, NikSuryaniNikAbdRahmanb & MelorMd.

Yunusc together conducted the work named “Factors influencing classroom participation: a
case study of Malaysian undergraduate students” (2010). The result showed that lecturer
traits were the most influential factor in encouraging participation among students, while
positive lecturers‟ traits encouraged participation, negative traits like having poor teaching
skills and being unapproachable discouraged participation; Negative students‟ traits which
refers to students‟ own limitation was found to deter their class participation. Inability to
focus and fear of making mistakes were reported to be discouraging students‟ participation.
Students were observed to be more inclined to participate when the lecturers called them by
name, asked probing questions, and engaged in positive nonverbal behaviors such as smiling
and nodding to acknowledge their answers.

5


Robert H. Trudeau (2006) worked on “Get Them to Read, Get Them to Talk: Using
Discussion Forums to Enhance Student Learning”. He found out that, joining discussion
forum before class did help students actively engaging in classroom-related activity outside of
the classroom by posting reflections and reading postings from other students.
Jalynn

Roberts

&

Mary

Nell

McNeese

(2006)

studied

“Student

Involvement/Engagement in Higher Education Based on Student Origin”. The research result
shows that as levels of student involvement/engagement increase, so does student retention in
higher education. Several post-secondary activities have been related to student retention:
peer interactions inside and outside of the classroom, membership in Greek organizations,
participation in service learning projects, involvement in athletics and extracurricular
activities, and diversity experiences. Transfer students, whether from a junior/community
college or from a four year college/university tend to become engaged in campus life at lower
rates than indigenous students. Post-secondary institutions should consider special services to
such students to increase student retention.
It can be seen that, educators and teachers who want to improve the interaction of
students in class have to apply a wide range of activities in their lectures. Some considerable
techniques are debate, picture narrating, information gaps, simulation, role play, reporting,
interview, etc. Regarding the real teaching context in Nguyen Hue high school which is the
setting of the study and in Ha Noi Pedagogical University No.2 where the researcher has been
studying, there has not been much researches on students‟ participation and the use of
information gaps in speaking classes. This leaves a gap for the researcher to bridge within her
current study.
I.2. Speaking
I.2.1.What is speaking?
Of all four key language skills, speaking is deemed to be the most important in
learning a second or foreign language. It is explained in various ways by a number of experts.
For Burns & Joyce (1997) and Louma (2004:2), speaking is defined as an interactive
process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing
information. Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, the

participants, and the purposes of speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.

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Alternatively, David Nunan (1999: 216) indicates that speaking requires learners to
not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or
vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also understand when, why, and in what ways to
produce language ("sociolinguistic competence")
Chaney (1998) states that speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning
through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts.
According to Brown and Yule (1983), speaking is the skill that the students will be
judged upon most in real-life situations. It is an important part of everyday interaction and
most often the first impression of a person based on his/her ability to speak fluently and
comprehensively.
Adopting those ideas, it can be said that speaking, which is also called oral production,
is a productive skill and is the ability to express oneself coherently, fluently and appropriately
in a given meaningful context. It is often spontaneous, hence once spoken out, it cannot be
edited and revised as in writing – another productive skill.
I.2.2.What is teaching speaking?
What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach learners to:
-

Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns

-

Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language.

-

Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience,
situation and subject matter.

-

Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.

-

Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.

-

Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as
fluency. ( David Nunan, 2003)
David Nunan (2003: 55, 56) also proposes five principles for teaching speaking.

Below are the descriptions:
a) Be aware of the differences between foreign language and second language learning
context.

7


While foreign language context is one where the target language is not the language of
communication in society, second language is.
b) Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy.
Accuracy is the extent to which students‟ speech matches what people actually say
when they use the target language. Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language

quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches,
etc. Teacher must provide students with fluency-building practice and realize that making
mistakes is a natural part of learning a new language.
c) Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limiting
teacher talk.
It is important for us as language teachers to be aware of how much we are talking in
class so we do not take up all the time the students could be talking. Pair work and group
work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the
target language during lessons.
d) Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning.
Learners make progress by communicating in the target language because interaction
necessarily involves trying to understand and make teacher understood. This process is called
negotiating for meaning. It involves checking to see if you have understood what someone has
said, clarifying your understanding, and confirming that someone has understood your
meaning.
e) Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and
interactional speaking.
When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually do it for interactional
or transactional purposes. Interactional speech is communicating with someone for social
purposes. Transactional speech involves communicating to get something done, including the
exchange of goods and/or services.
I.2.3.What are techniques for teaching speaking?
Differing from the old time when teaching speaking was just restricted to a repetition
of drills or memorization of sample dialogue, teaching speaking in this modern time requires a
lot of the collaboration from students, who are the center of the class, to improve their

8


communicative skill. Teacher‟s task here is to provide the authentic environment, exciting

situation and practical condition that provoke student to speak out as much as possible. This
usually can be accomplished by using techniques or activities which make student work in
groups to achieve a goal or complete a task.
There are plenty of beneficial classroom activities and practices which can be
manipulated according to the needs of learners and the specific purposes. Some of these
activities are as follow:
I.2.3.1. Story completion
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for students. The teacher
starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each student
starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to
add some more sentences, may be five to ten sentences, and can add new characters, events,
descriptions and so on.
This activity provokes students‟ imagination, frees them from the tough modeled
story. As the result, students feel more comfortable to talk and gradually talk more lesson by
lesson.
I.2.3.2. Role-play
One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in
various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher
gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the
teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what
happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)
It is widely agreed that learning takes place when activities are engaging and
memorable. Jeremy Harmer advocates the use of role-play for the following reasons: It's fun
and motivating; Quieter students get the chance to express themselves in a more forthright
way; The world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world - thus offering a
much wider range of language opportunities
In this technique the role of the teacher is that of a co-communicator. Students are
divided into different groups and act to be the character of some situation. Rest of the students
watch their performance and listen to their dialogues. Later on the spectator students give
them their feedback.

9


Bailey said role-plays are also excellent activities for speaking in a relatively safe
environment of the classroom. In a role-play, students are given particular roles in the target
language. It helps learners practice speaking target language before they must do so in real
environment. (David Nunan, 2003)
Role-play helps improve not only their interpersonal relations, but also they learn to
work together. When the learners are given feedback by their co-learners, they do not lose
confidence rather they feel motivated to do better and learn more
I.2.3.3. Simulation
Working on simulation, Harmer (1984) suggested it increased the self-confidence of
hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they would have a different
role and did not have to speak for themselves, which means they did not have to take the same
responsibility.
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but it is more elaborate. To be more specific,
students will bring items to the class to create an authentic environment.
I.2.3.4. Discussion
Discussions give learners an opportunity to share their views and are a useful means of
training pragmatic and strategic competence and fluency in general (Burns, Anna and Helen
Joyce, 1997)
Discussion can be held after a content-based lesson. Before the discussion, it is
essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher so that students have
to stick to the requirement and do not chat about irrelevant things. For efficient, group
preferably includes 4 or 5 member so every individual has a chance to talk and avoid quiet
student being shy to contribute their ideas. Then each group works on given topic for a
specific period of time, and presents opinions to the class. Speaking should be equally divided
among group members. At the end, teacher together with the class decides on the winning
group who defended the idea in the best way.

This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn
how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others.
Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be
encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so
on. (Kayi, 2006)

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I.2.3.5. Information gaps
In information gap, students are supposed to work in pairs or groups. Each student in a
pair/ group of student has different information that others lack. Students have to work
together to fill the missing information in all the blanks.
This technique serves many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting
information. Also, each student plays an important role because the task cannot be completed
if the partners do not provide the information the others need. (Kayi, 2006)
I.2.3.6. Story-telling
Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand,
or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. They also can tell riddles or jokes.
For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students
to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. The story goes on as the next student develops
where the previous drops and ends when the time is up or the teacher requires.
Kayi (2006) noted that story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps students
express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters
and setting a story has to have. In this way, not only will the teacher address students‟
speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class.
I.2.3.7. Interview
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good
idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions
they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview

questions.
According to Kagan (1994) three – step interview is a cooperative structure in which
members of a team interview one another on a particular topic. This structure can be used
both as an ice-breaker which introduces students to one another and to provide students with a
venue for soliciting opinions, positions, or ideas from their peers. Students are first paired and
take turns interviewing each other using a series of questions provided by the instructor. Pairs
then match up and students introduce their original partner. At the end of the exercise, all two
students have had their position or viewpoints on an issue heard, digested, and described by
their peers.

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Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking
ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized. After
interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class. Moreover, students can
interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class.
I.3. Participation
I.3.1.What is participation?
Students‟ participation literally is the extent to which students participate or involve
themselves in a class, course, etc.
In a class, student‟s participation is very important since it decides the success of a
lesson. Student need to not only focus on what teacher says but also join the class actively by
answering questions, taking part in activities, working on projects, etc.
To look under the education perspective, participation can be seen as an active
engagement process which can be sorted into five categories: preparation, contribution to
discussion, group skills, communication skills, and attendance (Dancer & Kamvounias, 2005).
It also has been shown that faculty perceives six levels of participation from students, moving
from simply attending class through giving oral presentations (Fritschner, 2000). Participation
also has been defined as „„the number of unsolicited responses volunteered‟‟ (Burchfield

&Sappington, 1999, p.290). It can come in many different forms, including students‟
questions and comments (Fassinger, 1995), and it can take a few seconds or an extended
period of time (Cohen, 1991). Wade (1994) considered the „„ideal class discussion‟‟ as one in
which almost all students participate and are interested, learning, and listening to others‟
comments and suggestions (p.237). Howard & Henney (1998) asserted that students who
frequently contribute to class discussions tend to define participation as speaking in class
without the comment being initiated by the professor. Those students who prefer to remain
quiet in the classroom have a much broader definition of participation, including active
listening and being properly prepared for the class (Fritschner, 2000)
I.3.2.What are benefits of participation?
By using various teaching techniques, the knowledge will come to student‟s mind
naturally and student can understand the lesson right in the class. The participation of each
learner plays a crucial role in stimulating other student‟s enthusiasm, hence contributing the

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classroom atmosphere. This is especially true in speaking class. It is important that the teacher
make the class atmosphere be free, friendly and exalting.
In addition, there is strong evidence for the importance of participating in class
(Weaver & Qi, 2005). Participation is a way to bring „„students actively into the educational
process‟‟ and to assist in „„enhancing our teaching and bringing life to the classroom‟‟
(Cohen, 1991, p. 699). Students are more motivated, learn better ( Weaver& Qi, 2005),
become better critical thinkers (Crone, 1997) when they are prepared for class and participate
in discussions. The more they participate, the less memorization they do, and the more they
engage in higher levels of thinking, including interpretation, analysis, and synthesis (Smith,
1977). Students who participate also show improvement in their communication skills
(Dancer &Kamvounias, 2005), group interactions (Armstrong and Boud, 1983), and
functioning in a democratic society (Girgin& Stevens, 2005).
I.3.3.What are possible negative factors affecting learners' participation?

Learners often face with various deterrents or obstacles that impede their participation
and progress whilst learning. These barriers include, amongst the others, learner-related
factor, lecturer-related factor, external factor, etc.
I.3.3.1. Leaner-related factor
It has been proved that learners‟ factors play an important role in foreign language
learning as well as in students‟ participation in speaking lessons (Ur, 1996). Factors around
learner may include: cognitive skill, language level, trait, anxiety, health condition, sex
differences.
The cognitive skill is different to each people. Some people can perceive a problem
quite quick and easy, whereas others need more time to understand and put into practice.
Students in the second type are tend to be shy to ask teacher about the lesson again or ask to
slow the class speed down. As the time gone, the lesson passed, the gap in knowledge will get
bigger and bigger resulting the lack of knowledge in student, so that they cannot contribute
their voice in class.
Personality trait, self-esteem, may impact one‟s willingness to participate in class,
depending on how it is measured. Normally, those with lower school-related self-esteem were
less likely to participate and more likely to sit in the back of the classroom, consequently,
whose low levels of class engagement.

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Another reason why students may not participate in class is because of their own
personal fears of feeling inadequate in front of others, regardless of the logistics of the
classroom setting. Armstrong and Boud (1983), Fritschner (2000), Howard & Henney (1998),
Hyde and Ruth (2002), and Weaver and Qi (2005) all noted that students may feel intimidated
or inadequate in front of their classmates and professors, and thus choose not to participate.
Students even reported confidence as the most motivating factor for their participation in
several studies (Armstrong &Boud, 1983; Fassinger, 1995; Wade, 1994; Weaver & Qi, 2005).
I.3.3.2. Lecturer-related factor

Lecturer plays an important role in increasing students‟ involvement. Each of their
expression such as attitude, manners, diction, etc. implies students in different ways.
In a research made in Malaysia, negative lecturer traits ranked second in the list of
most frequent factors mentioned as discouraging students‟ participation. 11 out of 25 students
who were asked mentioned that negative lecturer traits like having poor teaching skills, being
impatient and unapproachable deter students from participating.
The teaching content is same for a period of time, hence finding new ways to teach,
creative techniques to use not only help lecturers themselves be more interested in teaching
but also inspire student more in joining the course at the same time.
Another asset teachers‟ task is that they have to classify the student level whether they
are in beginner, intermediate or advanced so that have the appropriate lesson plan covering all
type of students.
I.3.3.3.External factors
This external factor means the environment setting like class size, seating
arrangement, study programs, classroom climate.
Since the bigger class size is, the less opportunity each student has to talk due to the
limit of time and the ability of the teacher, large class size tends to hamper communication.
More lecturing occurs in larger classes, which, in turn, means fewer participatory
opportunities for students (Weaver & Qi, 2005)
Seating arrangement is another logistical variable which impacts student participation.
With the traditional table position which is row and column, shy students tend to sit in the

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back or corner hide away from the teacher‟s eyes that trouble the teacher in managing and
covering class.
Classroom climate is quite pivotal. Negative classmate traits ranked highest in the list
of most frequent factors mentioned as discouraging students‟ participation. If the class is not
sociable and friendly, the visible pressure covers class and reduces students‟ enthusiasm.

I.3.3.4.Possible solutions to students’ participation
As discussed above, speaking is the center skill and also the most demanding one, so
that become skilled at speaking is more and more desired by students at any levels. However,
no matter how learners try to focus on speaking lessons, they still cannot prolong their
concentration with a boring class. For that reason, keeping improving the class environment
and stimulating students to talk more in speaking class are the challenges that every teacher
has to deal with.
It is argued that students play too passive a role in lectures, furthermore, the pace of presentation is too
fast, and the main emphasis is on rote memorization rather than meaningful understanding. To remedy
this situation, it is recommended that university teachers make greater use of instructional techniques
that require active students participation, such as class discussion, cooperative learning, debates, roleplaying, problem-based learning, and case studies
Harry G. Murray and Megan Lang, 1997

It is also claimed that the students who participate actively in the class learn the
subject matter more effectively, show greater development in areas such as oral
communication, critical thinking, and problem solving compare to those taught in the
traditional lecture mode. Therefore, having students actively take part in class is a crucial
thing that teachers must conquer.
Using information gap as a technique to facilitate students to talk is an effective way
that has been proved by many educators and psychologists. Besides, this technique can be
combined with many others to create exciting in-class activities and it is also suitable for
various topics. The procedure to conduct an information gap activities is quick and easy to
explain to students to practice.

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