Solutions for improving speaking skills in grade 10

THE TABLE OF CONTENT

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………...
1.1 Rationale for the study…………………………………………..
1.2 Research aims and subjects……………………………………..
1.3 Methodology……………………………………………………
…
2. PROCEDURE……………………………………………………..
2.1 Literature review…………………………………………………
2.2 Components of speaking…………………………………………
2.3 Factors affecting Second Language Learners’ skills…………..
2.4 Reality of learning speaking skills……………………………...
2.5 Solutions to improve speaking lessons …………………………
2.6 Educational effects of the study…………………………………
3. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……………………….
3.1 Conclusions ………………………………………………………
3.2 Suggestions ………………………………………………………

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale for the study
Within Asia there is growing recognition of the importance of learning English
because, for many, it is viewed as a prerequisite for accessing quality education and
job opportunities (Nguyen & Hudson, 2010). In Vietnam, as in many Asian countries,
English is now taught as a compulsory school subject from an early age (it is taught
from grade 3 onwards) (Misnistry of Eduaction and Training (MOET), 2008), and
many changes have been initiated in the teaching of the subject in the last few year.
In the early 1990’s Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was first
introduced and replaced the old methods of mainly grammar translation and a focus
on the formal aspects of language. There are a number of CLT’s definitions, for
example, according to Nunan, CLT can be characterized by a series of features, and
the most important of which is “an emphasis on learning to communicate through
interaction in the target language” (1991: 279). In CLT speaking is regarded as
central to the learning process due to its role in interaction, whether in terms of the
interaction hypothesis (Long, 1996), or in terms of socio-cultural theory (Lantolf &
Thorne, 2006). Therefore, the teaching and learning of speaking is of vital
importance for the success or lack of success in teaching English using CLT in
Vietnam.
The CLT approach to teaching and learning English has continued to be
encouraged in Vietnam. This can be seen by the continued government support in
policy implementation and the Vietnamese teachers’ favorable view of this approach
(Le, 1999). In 2006, a new national curriculum was introduced, it specifically stated

that communicative skills should be main goal of teaching English in secondary
schools, and that the teaching of formal knowledge of the language should support
the teaching of these skills, rather than be goals themselves (MOET, 2006). However,
these changes have not necessarily resulted in more effective education for
Vietnamese student learning English. After studying the subject for a number of
years, many learners still cannot use the language effectively. Indeed, it is estimated
that less than twenty percent of university students who have majored in English
have the necessary language skills to gain employment as interpreters, translators,
tour guides or teachers of English (Pham, 2004).
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It is agreed that the following reasons have resulted in the lack of success in
implementing CLT in Vietnam. Firstly, despite changes made to the curriculum and
demand for a more communicative approach to teaching, the national examination
system remains largely unchanged. Examinations usually test linguistic rather than
communicative competence, and frequently lack a listening or speaking component.
Obviously, there is a negative effect on classes from the exams because teachers may
not pay their attention to the teaching of listening and speaking in their classes, and
focus instead on the aspects which are present in the exams (Ellis, 1996). Also, many
students use strategies that are just enough to pass the exams, that is, they put in a
minimum effort to learn the English language (Trang & Baldauf, 2007). Another
constraint on the implementation of CLT in Vietnam is the English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) context, where English is not widely spoken and learners have little
immediate need to use English and a few opportunities to practice the language
outside the classroom. This lack of exposure to English can lead to the learner’s lack
of motivation to learn (Le, 1999), and what motivation they do have is generally
dependent on teachers’ initiative and learners’ will to succeed in learning language
(Ellis, 1996). In addition, large class sizes can create difficulties for the
implementation of communicative activities. In Vietnam secondary schools the

average class size between 42 and 52 students (Le, 1999), this student number
contributes to the difficulties in creating an ideal class atmosphere. This is a big
challenge for teachers to carry out many supplementary speaking activities with such
a large class, especially when they are also required to cover all the items on the
curriculum in limited time. Moreover, the language level of many Vietnamese
secondary school English teachers is quite low, as a recent test administered by the
Mininstry of Education and Training shows. When tested to see if they reached the
required B2 level of English, only about twenty percent of the teachers who
volunteered for the test passed the exam (Park, 2011). Obviously, this low level of
English may result in some teachers being unable to effectively implement speaking
activities in the classroom. Finally, at an individual level, teachers in Vietnam have
had varying degrees of success in implementing CLT into their classrooms (Lewis &
McCook, 2002). While many teachers are enthusiastic about its use, others are

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doubtful about how it can be realized in practice in their context, and in fact there
were only surface changes seen in their previous practices (Pham, 2007).
This study into the teaching and learning of speaking skills has been proposed
for a number of reasons. As a high school English teacher in Vietnam, I am aware of
the problems in the teaching of English speaking skills in the classroom described
above and would like to investigate more how speaking skills are currently being
taught and consider how any problems can be overcome. It is hoped that by studying
what is happening in the classroom, the researcher can get insight into any constraints
on the teaching of speaking skills and solutions can be suggested for these
challenges. In other words, it is believed that the study will be useful for the English
teachers working at the school in question, and also may prove to be of use for other
teachers working in high schools in the province.
1.2 Research Aims and Subjects

The research has been carrried out in 2 classes of grade 10: 10A and 10K at Ha
Trung High School.
The aims of this research are to investigate how English speaking skills are
taught in here and the difficulties the students face during their speaking tasks. After
performing some observations and experiments, it is hoped that some new ideas will
be suggested and put to use. Therefore, its final purpose is to provide local teachers
with some recommendations helping them tackle the challenges on the teaching
speaking skills more effectively.
1.3. Methodology
This research will take the form of a case study. This method is using when the
study focuses on a single unit, or a bounded system, where there are clear, finite
limits to the phenomenon (Merriam, 1998). In this case, the bounded system is made
up of the two English classes, 10A and 10K, at Ha Trung High School iigh Thanh
Hoa province, and how speaking skills are taught and learnt in this context.
According to Stake (2005), case studies can be classified as being intrinsic
(seeking understanding of a specific case which is important in its own right),
instrumental (examining a specific case to gain insight into a wider issue) or
collective (where multiple cases are studied in order to provide insight into an issue).
This case is an example of an intrinsic case study as the goal is to study this
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particular context in-depth and focus on its particular characteristics in order to
suggest improvements for the same context.
One of the drawbacks of case studies is that they have limited generalizability
as the results obtained from one source are not necessarily statistically generalizable
to the whole population of learners of which the case is a member (Dörnyei, 2007).
However, the aim of this research is to gain insight into the specific case, not to make
broad generalizations. Therefore, a case study is appropriate in these circumstances.
In case studies, many researchers typically use qualitative data collection techniques

(Lodico et al., 2010), but as using a case study approach is essentially a description of
what is to be studied, rather than a methodological choice (Stake, 2005), any suitable
data collection methods can be used. In this case, both qualitative and quantitative
data will be collected, using a questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation.
Besides, classroom observations were used in order to gather data to help the
researcher get to know how students are learning speaking skills at the current
context and what difficulties students have regarding their speaking skills. Thanks to
this way, the researcher has a chance to watch events as they occur. Observations,
therefore, can be considered the best data collection technique in searching for
information about how speaking skills are actually taught at the school.
To gain the best insight into the way that students in this context are learning
the speaking skills, a questionnaire was also used, that is, the difficulties the students
at the school experience in the learning of speaking skills. This data, reflecting the
students’ perceptions of the challenges they face, was used along with the data
collected from observations of actual events in order to identify the main difficulties
the students have in improving their speaking skills.
A questionnaire was chosen as a method of data collection, as this data
collection tool can reach a large number of respondents without suffering influence
from researcher’s presence.
The aim of the questionnaire is to discover the students’ perceptions of the
speaking activities they perform in class and also any difficulties they encounter
while speaking (see appendix ).
It is noted that the questionnaire has several limitations. For instance, it limits
the choice of respondents, preventing them from providing their own ideas (Bryman,
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2008; Denscombe, 2010). Additionally, no prompting or additional questions can be
performed to gather further data (Bryman, 2008). A final limitation is the matter of
low response rates and missing data (Bryman, 2008).

2. PROCEDURE
2.1. Literature review
This research project involves the teaching and learning of speaking skills, and
before beginning the research, a review of the literature regarding this topic will be
carried out in this part. In order to do this, firstly, the theoretical basis for teaching
speaking skills will be explored, followed by an analysis of what it means to be an
effective speaker in the second language learning. In the following section, some
factors which influence how successful a learner is at learning speaking skills will be
examined.
Historically speaking, within language teaching methodologies the teaching of
speaking skills has often been relegated to a minor skill (Nation, 2011). In the
grammar-translation approach, speaking was not given any attention to at all, and
later approaches, for example, the ‘comprehension approach’ delayed the teaching of
speaking until learners had already built up substantial knowledge of the language
system through listening input (Winitz, 1981). While speaking was highlighted in the
audio-lingual approach and through Communicative Language Teaching, oral
interaction has been dominant, many contemporary language exams and courses
around the world continue to teach and assess language through the medium of
written skills (Bygate, 2009). In addition, despite communicative advances in
language teaching, speaking is often viewed as a skill that can show evidence of what
has been learnt, rather than as a mechanism for learning to take place
(Kumaravadivelu, 2006). However, in recent years research has indicated that
language learning can take place through production of speech, and this can aid other
aspects of language learning, rather than solely benefit the acquisition of oral
interaction skills.
The interaction approach states that language learning takes place through
exposure to language (input), production of language (output) and the feedback that
occurs as a result of interaction (Gass & Selinker, 2008). Therefore, interaction is
said to connect “input, internal learner capacities, particularly selective attention, and
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output in productive ways” (Long, 1996: 452), and its importance “is not simply that
it creates learning opportunities, it is that it constitutes learning itself” (Allwright,
1984: 9).
As can be seen, the interaction approach and hypothesis regard interaction and
speaking with others as a key aspect of second language acquisition and an important
component of language courses.
In terms of the output hypothesis, Kumaravadivelu (2006) indicated that
output refers to the utterances which learners produce orally or in the written form,
and is therefore an important part of any discussion of teaching speaking. As
mentioned above, output was for many years considered a way of showing what
learning has taken place rather than a mechanism for creating knowledge. Indeed,
according to Krashen (1982) speaking is a result of acquisition rather than its cause.
Recent research evidence, however, has shown that output and the production of
speech have a larger role in language acquisition, and input alone is not enough to
account for acquisition. Swain (1985) introduced the concept of comprehensible
output, that is, the delivery of a message which is “not only conveyed, but that is
conveyed precisely, coherently, and appropriately” (1985: 248-9). By this concept,
she meant that learners should be pushed or stretched in their production as a
necessary part of making themselves understood. She asserted that language
production moves learners from processing language at the level of word meaning
which can often be done through guesswork or focusing on key words, to the
processing of language at the level of grammatical structures which requires a higher
level of cognitive activity.
In short, output in the form of production of speech in English language classes
can help the learners develop not only their speaking skills, but also their
grammatical and syntactic knowledge of the language.
2.2. The Components of Speaking
According to Hedge (2000), in order to help students develop their ability to

speak English, we firstly need a descriptive framework for looking at spoken
discourse to categorise the demands that different situations make of the participants.
In other words, we need to know what is involved in speaking. We can describe a
person’s command of a language in terms of ‘communicative competence’, that is,
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“that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and
to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (Brown, 1994: 227).
Canale and Swain (1980) developed an orientational framework for defining
communicative competence which consists of four elements: grammatical
competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic
competence. This framework has been developed and expanded by various other
researchers. For example, according to Littlewood (2011), there should be five
dimensions to communicative competence as sociocultural competence should be
added. Meanwhile, Thornbury (2005) adds genre knowledge, and separates the
linguistic competence component further into competence in grammar, vocabulary
and pronunciation.
2.3. Factors Affecting Second Language Learners’ Speaking
A number of factors can affect how successful a learner is at acquiring oral
communicative competence in a second language, for example age, aptitude and
motivation. In this study, however, the most pertinent factors that may affect how
well the learners acquire speaking skills are cultural and affective factors and
classroom practices.
Regarding to cultural factors, it is clear that Asian students in general and
Vietnamese students in particular are accustomed to being passive and non-verbal
learners due to the fact that they come from the countries where ‘harmony and
conformity are strongly stressed’ (Stapleton, 2001: 509), reticence and humility are
highly valued in these cultures (Park, 2000) while argumentation, persuasion are
devalued (Brenner & Parks, 2001) . This can bring out difficulties in implementing

speaking activities such as pair and group work as many learners may be afraid of
losing face in front of their classmates and therefore are not confident in participating
in groups. Moreover, Vietnamese learners have lower interest in pursuing complexity,
dislike ambiguity and uncertainty (Rao, 2001; D’Andrade , 2008). Many of the
speaking activities used in CLT are of an unstructured nature where there is no one
right or wrong answer, as their aim is to assist students to practise speaking. This
ambiguity and flexibility of tasks may not be suitable for these learners, as they may
not have the strategies and skills to deal with them effectively.

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Another cultural factor which can affect the acquisition of speaking skills is the
teacher – student relationship. Confucian influences lead Vietnamese students to see
their teachers are superiors whose job is to impart their knowledge and for the
learners to passively receive it (Tuong, 2002; Accacia, 1993) . As a result, learners
hardly ever express their own opinions in the classroom and are not confident in
communicating or interacting with teachers, leading to difficulties in practising the
oral skill (Littlewood & Liu, 1997).
In terms of affective factors, anxiety is considered as the core problem to
Vietnamese learners. Students always face with the fear of making mistakes, being
laughed at and the feeling of failing the class ( Deweale, 2012). Thus, a crucial factor
in reducing language anxiety in the EFL classroom is the teacher, who is often the
only source of contact that the learners have when studying a foreign language. If the
teacher is able to show the learners that they are in a safe learning environment where
they need not fear speaking up, the learners are thought to be less likely to show
anxiety in speaking (Arnold & Foncesca, 2007).
Another significant factor that influences the success of learners acquiring
speaking skills is the way in which they are practised in the classroom. According to
Harmer (2007), teachers can do many tasks in order to make learners more confident

in speaking, for example, giving clear instructions, allowing sufficient preparation
time, repeating the tasks, and providing thoughtful feedback.
It can be seen so far from the interaction and output hypotheses that speaking
can be used both as a means to practise what has been learnt and as a mechanism
through which language can be acquired. However, speaking is a complicated
construct, which requires a number of different types of knowledge and each of these
needs to be thoroughly addressed in the classroom. In addition, learners can face a
number of obstacles to improving their speaking skills, from cultural issues such as a
fear of losing face, to affective factors such as language anxiety. It has been seen that
obstructions to learning can also emerge from the teacher’s side, either through poor
classroom practices or through lack of knowledge of how to teach and practise
speaking skills using a CLT approach. However, as the literature review
demonstrates, there is a lack of empirical studies examining how speaking skill is
currently taught in the context. This gap motivated the author to conduct this research
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2.4. Reality of learning speaking skills
In this section, the findings from the class room observations and the
questionnaires will be presented. This is the very current situation of learning and
teaching English speaking skills at Ha trung High School, the studied context.
2.4.1. Classroom observation findings
Totally, 4 classes were observed with 5 speaking activities including
Question/answer, role play, dialogue, discusion, presentation. In most activities, the
teacher gave instructions about the task for all the activities, helpful phrases or
difficult and new words were written on the board. The teacher monitored the
activities, and feedback was always given to the students.
A number of problems were noted during the activities including using the first
language, a lack of students’ motivation and the fact that the activities were either not
demanding enough for the students as in the case of practicing dialogue or seemed

above their levels of expertise as in the discussion and the presentation classes.
2.4.2. Questionnaire Findings
From the two classes 10A and 10K with the total student number of the 2 serveyed
classes is 84, 46 female students and 38 male students .
In this part, activities are listed and respondents are asked to choose answers based
on the Likert scale, where 1 is very easy, 2 is easy, 3 is neither easy nor difficult
(neutral), 4 is difficult, and 5 is very difficult.
Graph 1: Students’ difficulty of speaking activities.
The graph1 demonstrates how much difficulty the surveyed students have to
confront with when they experience learning speaking skills.
As can be seen from the graph, short question/answer and role play are the two
easiest speaking activities for the learners. 45% of the students (37) stated that they
have no difficulty performing the short question/answer task, and 38 students rated
role play to be 1 or 2 on the difficulty scale. While, 19% of the total students (16)
judged these learning activities to be 3 (neutral level). 34% and and 37% of the
surveyed answered that they couldn’t do these activities, respectively.
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On the contrary, the three others including dialogue, presentation and
discussion are really challenges for these 10 grade students. The majority of the
respondents rated these either 4 or 5, with the highest number (63 students (75%)) for
presentation, the following, 61 for discussion and 59 for dialogue. Only 8 students
asserted that they can perform presentation activity easily, 9 positive answers for
discussion and 11 for the other.
Graph 2: Students’ enjoyment of speaking activities

Graph 2 illustrates the students’ enjoyment of the 5 different speaking activities
where 1 refers to not enjoying them at all, 2-not enjoying, 3-neutral opinion, 4enjoying and 5- enjoying them very much.
Obviously, the 2 first activities ( short question/answer and role play) have a

common pattern and three others share another trend.
In the graph, the most noticeable feature can be seen is that a very large
number of the students rated the three activities including dialogue, presentation and
discussion either 1 or 2, which means they didn’t enjoy them (59 of the total 84
respondents for dialogue, 62 for presentation and discussion). Only 7 surveyed
students stated they were interested in discussion. The nearly same small numbers are
two others. On the contrary, short question/answer and role play seem to be much
easier for the learners. 27 students voted the former to be 4 or 5 on the enjoyment
scale, and 30 showed the same opinion for the later. The number of students judged
as the neutral level for both activities is quite high, 26 and 24 respectively. 11 and 14
students showed that they don’t like these activities.
2.5. Solutions to improve speaking lessons
Through the class observation and students’ questionnaire, it is shown that the
speaking lessons are being done with little effect especially in the demanding
activities such as presentation, discussion and dialogue. Evidently, students are
having to cope with so many difficulties. For instance, they feel very nervous
whenever they speak English, they don’t know the right words nor the right tense to
use. Even they cannot pronounce the words they have known correctly. Also, they
lack motivation to keep their task going. As a result, their dialogue or discussion
activities often break down very early.
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So, the question posed is that how to avoid the failure in speaking classes.
Below are some solutions that the researcher have taken to class 10 A and 10K
to improve the teaching and learning speaking lessons.
2. 5.1 Solution 1. Build students’ confidence.
- Get familiar to class things and terms
As can be seen, grade 10’ students are the beginning- level ones. Each
classroom is different, and if the teacher make students familiar to the things in the

class at the beginning of the school year, which can reduce their stressful feelings. It’s
crucial to provide them with the time to review some key vocabulary. Since these are
the items they will be encountering daily and there is no need to challenge them with
this vocabulary later. This is also a way to help new students to build up their
confidence in learning English, especially speaking skills. The followings are some
suggestions to start
Supplies: desk, book, paper, pen, pencil, notebook, syllabus, rule, eraser,
chalk…
Rules: Imperative grammar, don’t, should, shouldn’t, can, may, have to,……
People: student, teacher, classmates, principal….
Classroom: clock, board, computer, fan, light…….
Respectful words: please, thank you.
- Focus on communication and fluency, not interruption and correctness
Another way to ensure that students feel confident when producing their talk is
not being interrupted. That is, teachers and partners should wait until the speakers
finish their turns, even they have used the wrong words or tense of verbs. The most
important thing is avoiding embarrass learners in front of their classmates. In other
words, teachers should pay attention to the student communicative ability rather than
notice their faults. If teachers insist on correcting them, they will not only interrupt
their train of thought, but it will also affect their confidence. So, when they are
speaking, just provide some suggestions for improvement when needed and offer
praise to encourage students to work better.
Also, teachers should explain to students so that they don’t need to worry
about their conversation whether it is correct or not. The point is if their meaning is
coming through. This is what should be emphasized to students: it is not matter of
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“right” but whether or not their classmates understand speaker and can respond to
them.

2.5.2 Solution 2: build pair work and rotate partners when teaching speaking
English
What happens most often in the English classroom is that one or a few of the
students dominate the conversation.
Quite literally, we’re talking about taking turns to speak. So, if you tell a group
they have to plan a trip together, the students should take turns providing ideas,
offering to do something or giving opinions. Some few better learners will have more
chances to express their opinions, giving the others very short turns. On the contrary,
when students are divided into pairs, is that both students take turns to speak and no
one may be left behind. Besides, having students work in pair is more productive for
the reasons that learners can feel more self-confident. That is, they may have less
stress when uttering and even they have no fear of losing face in the case they make
mistakes.
However, the pair work method may create some potential drawbacks. That is,
the conversation may end in a matter of seconds, and the talk is cut short simply
because they don’t know how to keep it going, or even the pair experiences the
boredoom. To deal with these negatives effects, the teachers may resort to the
following ideas:
Firstly, set up the rule 1 : “Yes” or “No” answer is not allowed in the
discussion or dialogue.
This rule aims at extending the discussion, so this kind of answer is
unacceptable. Teachers should make students to get accustomed to explaining their
answer and giving the reasons to support to it. Especially, if they can finish their turn
with a question, this can provide the other with a chance to go on until the discussion
or the dialogue has been done long enough.
Example -the task 2. Unit 13. Film and Cinema
Redesigned for pair work: ask and answer about the different kinds of film in the
table
- What do you think of horror films?
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- I find them rerrifying. I never want to see this kind of films. Do you often what
them?
- Yes, even though they are fearfull, sometimes I see a film with my brother at
weekend. And what kind of film do you enjoy most?
- Oh, I believe I’m keen on romantic ones. I usually see Korian films with my mom.
They are mainly about love stories. And what do you think about cartoon films?
- Yep, I find them really interesting and funny. What cartoon film do you like best?
I suppose “Tom and Jerry” is my favorite. I love both the mouse and the cat. Do you
enjoy it?
- Yes, a lot. In my opinion most children are interested in this film since the films are
a series of the tricks that they play on each other. Every period is really enjoyable.
And science fiction films, do you think it’s good to see this kind of film?
- Oh, yes. I love them. I believe it is a wonderful way to imagine about the future
world. Do you think so?
- I can’t agree with you more. Many imaginary achievements and things can be seen
this kind of film, and they are excellent.
- Yes, that’s why we are always keen on this kind of flim.
However, when encouraging learners to take longer turns speaking, teachers
should keep corrections to a minimum due to the fact that students have tried their
best, or even they have struggled with grammar, with vocabulary, with their
confidence to produce the right words and prolong the conversation.
Rule 2: Rotate the partner
As can be seen, the pair work may experience the monotony if the two students
always do things together and don’t feel eager to talk with the other. Hence, they
should be encouraged to change the equal so that they can get exposed to more ideas.
Moreover, this method can help to create enjoyment or excitement for students when
doing a speaking task since they have opportunities to talk with at least two other
partners next to them without moving out of their place, which help to reduce the

waste of time and the noise. Another benefit of this strategy is that when students
have chances to make conversations or discussions on the same topic more than once,
they can know how to avoid their own mistakes and their former partners’. In
addition, practice makes them remember better the structures and vocabulary given
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by teacher at the beginning of the lesson. As a result, the time spared to speaking
activities can be boosted and the greater outcome can be gained.
2.6. Educational effects of the study.
After applying these solutions during an academic year 2016-2017, the results
achieved are quite positive. The majority of the students in the survey who are
exposed to these new ideas have been able to perform speaking activities during
speaking lessons much more smoothly with a great deal of confidence. The results
also indicate that speaking skills are not to dificult to learn as many thought before.
The researcher has used the same questionaire to investigate the attitude students
Graph 3.
(In this part, activities are listed and respondents are asked to choose answers
based on the Likert scale, where 1 is very easy, 2 is easy, 3 is neither easy nor
difficult (neutral), 4 is difficult, and 5 is very difficult.)
Students’ difficulty of speaking activities .

Graph 3 shows how students rated the difficulty of each type of speaking
activity they complete in class after an accademic year with applying some solutions
in teaching and learning this skill.
As can be seen, the most striking result to emerge from the chart is that level 2
on the difficulty scale was the option of the biggest number of learners for all the
activities, except for presentation.
Short question/answer and role play are still the easiest speaking activities for
the surveyed. Of the total 84 students, 59 and 57 students rated them 1 or 2,

respectively. Only 5 students judged short question/answer to be 4 or 5 and 10
students for role play.
Presentation is the learning activity with the least students rating it 1 or 2.
However, the number is quite high, 34 students. And only 21 answered that this kind
of lesson is still difficult for them. While, 38 ( for dialogue) and 41( for discussion)
respondents asserted that they can perform them easily. The number of learners
judged them to be 4 or 5 has decreased sharply. ( 20 and 18 students, respectively).
Graph 4: Students’ enjoyment of speaking activities
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The chart 4 showed the students’ enjoyment of speaking activities after an
accademic year with the introduced solutions.
In the graph, the most outstanding feature to be noticed is that the majority of
the respondents had the answers with 4 or 5, the highest level of enjoyment on the
scale for all the speaking activities. Short question/answer is still the favorite one
with up to 69 students ( 82%) expressing their positive opinion to it, and only 3
students insisted that they couldn’t enjoy this activity. The following is role play as
64 learners asserted that they are fond of this one and 10 others said no with this. The
three other surveyed speaking activities also got very optimistic results: 51 students
stated they were keen on the dialogue, 47 students for discussion and 45 for
presentation. The number of learners who claimed their dislike to these speaking
activities has reduced significantly, to about 29% compared with more than 70%
before applying the new solutions.
3. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
3.1. Conclusion
On the whole, from the result gained before and after the application of the
new ideas in the research, the quality of learning speaking activities in grade 10 has
been significantly improved. Although the researcher aimed mainly at resolving
problems related to the lack of success in practicing dialogue and discussion in this

context, the good results can be achieved in all the kinds of speaking lessons. This
may be expained by the students’ confidence and motivation being built up thanks to
the effective rules and ideas. As a result, there were up to 229 answers (54,5%)
judged speaking skills to be easy and they can perform them without difficulties,
compared with only 103 positive answers (24,5%) at the beginning of the school
years. Obviously, there is a link between the percieved difficulty level and the
students’ enjoyment of the speaking activities. After one school year period with the
experience of some improvements in teaching speaking skills, 276 responses (65,7%)
expressed their pleasure to speaking lessons instead of only 81 optimistic answers
(19,2%) when the surveyed time started in September 2016. Therefore, the study has
proved that speaking lessons are not very challenging to learners if teachers do their
best to help students change their attitude toward the subject.
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3.2. Suggestions.
On the basis of the results, some suggestions are presented in an effort to
improve the teaching and learning speaking skills in the study context:
Teachers should help students to overcome their fearness and anxiety at the
beginning of the school year so that they will have confidence to join classes,
including speaking ones. A familiar study environment can contribute to their
learning success.
Building speaking skills is a process of learning and making mistakes is
enevitable. However, just focus on communication and fluency, avoid interrupting
and correcting students when they are practising. The vital rule in training speaking
skills is encouraging students to take any chance to create studying situations, to
communicate with their partners, to express their ideas in the most confident way.
This is the most effective method to help learners to master these skills quickly.
THE PRINCIPAL'S CONFIRMATION

Thanh Hoa, May 10th 2017
Undertaking not to copy
Lý Thị Nguyệt Minh

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Appendix: Questionnaire

Questionnaires for students

Part A: Background Information

1) What grade are you in?
a) 10

b) 11

c) 12

2) Sex
a) male

b) female
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Part B: Speaking Activities in Class

3) Please rate how difficult you find each of these speaking activities, where 1 is very easy and 5 is very
difficult.

Short questions/answers

1 2 3 4 5

Practising dialogues

1 2 3 4 5

Role play

1 2 3 4 5

Presentation

1 2 3 4 5

Discussion

1 2 3 4 5

Other _________________

1 2 3 4 5

4) Please rate how much you enjoy completing these speaking activities in class, where 1 is you don’t
enjoy it at all and 5 is you enjoy it very much.

Short questions/answers

1 2 3 4 5

Practising dialogues

1 2 3 4 5

Role play

1 2 3 4 5

Presentation

1 2 3 4 5

Discussion

1 2 3 4 5

Other _________________

1 2 3 4 5

20